The Student Senate released almost $13,000 in surplus funds for upcoming campus events put on by student organizations at its Wednesday meeting.
The Land Air Water association requested $5,000 to fund two high-profile speakers who will appear at the upcoming Public Interest Environmental Law Conference.
Alyssa Johl, LAW’s treasurer, told the Senate the group has already been allocated $21,000 to pay other expenses related to the conference but does not normally pay speakers.
This year, the money will pay for both Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an environmentalist who works to protect the rights of the native people of the arctic.
“This woman is cutting-edge environmental law,” Johl said.
Johl said LAW has been fundraising since July and although the group has only raised $850, it was asking Senate for far less than it needed, as Kennedy’s speaker fee alone is $5,000. After a brief discussion, the Senate voted to release the surplus money by a margin of 17-0-1. Richard Pryor, director of the Nontraditional Students Union, came to Senate asking for $7,924.25 to fund promotion and various speakers’ costs for the upcoming conference called “New Writing, New Thinking: The Immigrant Experience.”
Senators said they were very impressed with Pryor’s budget request packet, particularly the information presented on the group’s fundraising, which has already brought in $10,075.
“This is a shining, beautiful example of what a surplus request should look like,” said Sen. Jacqueline Justice.
Justice said the group’s fundraising efforts were “phenomenal.” “If the Senate had a fridge, this would go up on it,” said Sen. Micah Kosasa.
The request passed by a vote of 17-0-1.
Senators approved a few small requests for releases from food holding accounts and with a long agenda still ahead, the atmosphere in the meeting seemed tense. At various points in the meeting, Senate President Sara Hamilton asked the other senators to keep side conversations to a minimum and Sens. Oscar Guerra and Karl Mourfy repeated requests to show respect to speakers.
“I really don’t like when we set an atmosphere where a speaker comes into our space and we giggle,” Guerra said during a presentation from the Chinese Students and Scholars Association requesting a food holding release. “It just really frustrates me. I don’t know why this just happened.”
Senators also heard from Jen de-Vries and Dennis Munroe of the Student Recreation Center, who came to the meeting to try and give all senators – not just those on the Programs Finance Committee – a sense of how the rec center’s financial troubles began. Munroe and de-Vries gave the Senate the same presentation they did during their PFC budget hearing on Jan. 12.
Sen. Kyle McKenzie,who described himself as a staunch supporter of the 2.5 percent budget increase, said he hoped the ASUO could help the rec center.
“I would like to put out the word to PFC that groups like this do so much for the University,” he said.
Other Senators agreed that the presentation had put things into perspective, but said the PFC has to take into account the needs of all other programs too.
The Senators also approved the appointment of Erica Anderson, a former member of the PFC, to the vacancy in Senate Seat 9, an Athletic Department Finance Committee seat vacated by Drew Pinson, who left to study abroad, by a vote of 14-2-1 with Hamilton abstaining and Sens. Jacob Daniels and Kyle McKenzie voting against the appointment.
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