A&O, 2 other groups could lose Senate seats

By Angela Tablac

The Daily Northwestern

Three student groups, including A&O Productions, lost their Associated Student Government Senate seats when the executive committee rejected their applications for next year.

A&O — an A-status student group that receives the largest amount of ASG funding — faces the loss of a role in Senate decisionmaking, along with the student groups Students for Environmental and Ecological Development and CaribNation. A fourth group, Northwestern Singapore and Friends, never held a Senate seat but the ASG Executive Committee rejected its application for one this year.

A&O plans to appeal the decision of the ASG Executive Committee, said A&O Sen. Nathanael Wickman.

A&O Chairman Brian Bockrath said he was unaware of what went into the committee’s decision not to approve an A&O senator. The group received more than $209,000 in ASG funding.

“It’s kind of alarming that A&O isn’t being invited by ASG to participate in Senate,” said Bockrath, a McCormick junior.

Student groups need to apply each May for senator spots, and 26 groups turned in applications, ASG Executive Vice President Howie Buffett said. Once applications are received, Buffett and the Executive Committee conducted closed-committee meetings to discuss which groups to approve for Senate spots. Only 22 groups are allowed to have senators, and the four groups without Senate seats were listed as alternates, which take a seat if represented group is removed from Senate.

Buffett said A&O members called him to express concerns about the lack of time to complete their application for a Senate seat. Buffett added that he had concerns about time being an issue, citing the group’s suspected use of recycled answers from its applications of the past few years.

“It’s kind of deceitful,” he said.

Buffett declined to comment further on the reason for the committee not renewing A&O’s Senate seat, adding he would reveal specific reasons for the rejections of each student group on Wednesday during the ASG meeting. He said although a group’s ASG funding was taken into consideration, the amount wasn’t one of the most important criteria.

According to Executive Committee guidelines, each student group was evaluated on several criteria, including the group’s constituencies, number of students involved, previous history with Senate, any past financial misconduct, length of existence and past senator performance.

Buffett said all six criteria were considered in when the committee looked at groups, but he declined to say which one weighed the heaviest. Buffett added that each group’s application was important in considerations.

Wickman, the A&O senator, said members of the group are “very unclear” as to why they didn’t receive a seat.

“Even though we don’t have a clear membership, we feel we have a huge number of people who go to our events,” Wickman said.

In addition to the three groups that lost senator spots, the National Pan-Hellenic Council did not reapply for its seat. Four groups without a previous Senate seat received senator positions that will start in the fall — One Step Before, Nugget Investment Group, Phi Alpha Delta and Korean American Students Association. OSB serves as a pre-med society for black students and Phi Alpha Delta is a pre-law society.

SEED received the second-most funding of a group not to be granted a Senate seat. Matt McCormick, the group’s co-chairman, pointed to a former SEED senator’s absences as a possible contributor to the committee’s decision to eliminate his group’s seat. McCormick said his group addressed its representative’s attendance problems and straightened out the situation.

“That action shows that we take Senate very seriously and do attempt to promptly address the concerns of the executive committee,” said McCormick, a Weinberg senior. “I can’t see any other complaint anyone would have with us.”

McCormick said the Senate spot won’t affect SEED adversely but it will hamper the group’s ability to bring issues before Senate.

SEED’s past Senate performance was “taken into account” when Executive Committee members looked at the group, Buffett said.

McCormick said he doesn’t think SEED will appeal for a Senate seat Wednesday, but Buffett said A&O plans to ask for a re-examination. Applications for appeal were due on Saturday.