A new bill presented at Wednesday night’s ASG meeting proposes increasing the number of student group Senate seats from 15 to 19.
Arianne Urus, last year’s College Feminists senator, introduced the bill to the Associated Student Government.
This year, 19 groups applied for 15 student group Senate seats, leaving four groups on the wait list: College Feminists; Asian Pacific American Coalition; Peace Project; and 64 Squares and Model United Nations, which applied to share a seat. If the bill is passed, these groups would automatically get seats in the Senate until the next round of applications.
“Fifteen was an arbitrarily decided number and 19 is more accommodating to student interests,” said Urus, a Weinberg junior, during her presentation.
Having to challenge another student group for their seat is “very uncomfortable” and goes against the interests of ASG, Urus said.
“ASG should promote student groups to work together, and if you give the number of groups that apply seats, then there is no competition,” she said.
The bill’s fate appeared uncertain as senators questioned the reasons behind increasing the number of student group seats. A town hall discussion on the bill will be held at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the ASG office in Norris University Center.
Another upcoming amendment to the constitution was presented by ASG President Jonathan Webber, who dressed as Uncle Sam for Halloween. He alerted the Senate to an upcoming proposal to move campuswide elections for the Executive Board from Spring Quarter to Winter Quarter.
The Student Activities Finance Board also presented its recommendations for supplemental funding at the meeting. With $186,318 available for allocations, supplemental funding is much smaller than the spring funding cycle, which usually allocates about $900,000. This money comes from the Student Activities Fee, a $44 payment included in undergraduate tuition.
Supplemental funding allows senators to evaluate student groups based on events hosted after the spring cycle. While SAFB’s largest proposed allocations were to A&O Productions for $73,245 and Mayfest for $44,400, these are only recommendations. The Senate will discuss the suggestions at next week’s meeting before voting.
Also, during the meeting, Financial Vice President Aneesa Arshad announced that SAFB approved splitting allocations of money given to College Feminists and A&O last spring.
College Feminists split its $12,000 allocation between hosting Alexandra Robbins, author of “Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities,” who will speak this Tuesday, and a pro-choice panel and movie screening they intend to host during Winter Quarter.
A&O split its $128,810 allocation into three shows: two concerts in the fall and one in the winter.
ASG has three student group tiers. A-status, generally the larger groups on campus, are funded by SAFB. B- and T- status are for smaller and newer groups. For the first time last year, ASG allocated $19,514 to B-status groups through the Executive Committee.
On Wednesday, the Institute for Student Business Education petitioned to re-allocate their funding, a first for B-status groups. Executive Vice President Matt Bogusz said the re-allocation will be discussed in committee and the decisions will be presented to Senate next week.
The Student Services Committee said they will audit the timeliness of the Purple Route and Purple Express shuttles tonight. Also, the External Relations Committee announced that for the next six months, they will be working on an online apartment survey, as well as improvement of weekend shuttle systems downtown.
Reach Steph Yiu at [email protected].
