While many Associated Student Government executive board candidates prepare for Thursday’s runoff elections, Senate will hear Student Activities Finance Board make recommendations for spring funding at tonight’s meeting.
SAFB will make $660,000 worth of recommendations, said ASG Financial Vice President Carson Kuo. Forty of ASG’s A-status groups requested funding totaling $1.4 million, he said.
Senate will have a chance to debate the recommendations tonight before student groups start appealing the decisions at an April 18 meeting.
Senators challenged SAFB recommendations last year, arguing for more funding for Martin Luther King Jr. Day programming, co-sponsorships and large-scale programming. Kuo said he doesn’t expect the same kind of controversy to accompany this year’s funding decisions.
“I think this year’s Senate is a lot more professional,” said Kuo, an Education junior. “I don’t anticipate anything like that happening.”
Senate might behave with more civility this year, but some student groups certainly will walk away disappointed. Only a handful of groups were recommended to receive the total amount of funding they requested, Kuo said.
A&O Productions requested $361,000 – the most of any group, Kuo said. Student Blood Services requested the least, with $730.
Last year many student groups were angry about the distribution of funds. Although Alianza did not receive all the funds it asked for in the last funding cycle, Alianza President Katherine Unmuth said she is hopeful her group will be able to bring two speakers and gain funding for Hispanic Heritage Month this year.
“We’re not going to not try just because we’re afraid we won’t get funded,” said Unmuth, a Medill sophomore. “We’re optimistic and we put a lot of time into putting the proposal together. Hopefully ASG will see that.”
The Senate also will elect seven members to two ad-hoc committees: the MLK Day and Multicultural Affairs committees.
Four of the seven students elected to the MLK Day committee will have no ASG affiliation, said ASG President Adam Humann.
ASG has been working on an MLK Day committee since Senate removed the requirement that 2 percent of ASG funding be devoted to MLK Day, said Humann, a Weinberg senior.
Inspired by events such as dinners between different student groups at the Multicultural Center, members of the Multicultural Center Advisory Board contacted Humann at the end of Winter Quarter to work on forming the multicultural affairs committee. The committee will serve as an “outlet” for tensions at NU, said Sadiya Farooqui, a Weinberg sophomore whom Humann plans to appoint as chairwoman of the committee.
Among other things, the committee will generate two diversity reports that compare diversity at NU to that of other schools, said Farooqui, who is also vice-chairwoman of the Multicultural Center Advisory Board.
“It’s a good thing,” Humann said. “It will be an avenue through which to address issues relevant to the notion of multiculturalism through ASG.”
The Senate also will vote on three bills calling for:
_Ѣ making SPAC classes cheaper for students
_Ѣ improving shuttle services on campus
_Ѣ making more music practice space available on North Campus.
