6:10 p.m.: Associated Student Government, student group representatives and the Student Appropriations and Finance Committee filled Annenberg Room G15 to vote on the supplemental funding for student groups. Malavika Srinivasan the head of SAFC addressed the room asking student to be committed and supportive to the funding meeting. Students who wish to add or cut money from a group may give speeches. The order for the student groups was decided upon random. SAFC began with $9,700 to be appropriated.
6:15 p.m.: ASG speaker Samir Pendse moves through the cut round in which students who wish to cut money appropriated to student groups may speak. No students motioned to cut.
6:18 p.m.: Chinese Student Association requests to add $3,637 honorarium for the group’s spring speaker though it is a 25 percent decrease from last year. The motion passed, and an extra $100 was added for ground transportation.
CSA President Wenhao Sun requested $650 for sound and sight for CSA’s spring show which he said is the bare minimum for the group to put on the show. The Senate voted against the motion, and Sun then motioned for $400.
“$400 is below the bare minimum, but Senate has spoken,” Sun said. “We need sound and sight to put on the show. Our funding is barely enough to sustain our recruitment and other events, and it’s going to put a strain on our show.”
Because the division among the Senate vote was difficult to tell, Pendse requested those for and opposed to stand. The motion passed.
6:30 p.m.: Verse Tour added $1500 for honorarium.
6:34 p.m.: UNITY chairperson asked to add $1000 for sound and sight in order to fund its fashion show. The motion passed.
6:37 p.m.: College Republicans president Scott John Oudheusden motioned to add $500 to its already $4,000 honorarium which is a decrease from the previous year.
A senator gave a con speech and said the group should not receive any more funding because College Republicans already has a large honorarium. The motion failed.
College Republicans then asked to add $300, and the motion was passed.
6:44 p.m.: Srinvasan addressed the room because only $2,715 remains for appropriating.
“Make sure to honor each group’s request,” she said. “If we’re in a deficit we’ll come back and narrow it down.”
6:45 p.m. For Members Only Senator Tyris Jones motioned to add $200 to honorarium for its spring concert. Jones said the event is geared toward prospective students and drawing them to Northwestern. FMO does not receive money from the Office of Admissions for the event, but Jones said FMO has students who host the prospective students to provide fun activities and celebrity guests. The motion passed.
6:50 p.m.: SEED motioned to add $750 for its PhilFest a blue grass festival that commemorates a previous member of SEED who was killed in a car accident. Sam Eckland, co-chair of SEED, said the money they received so far only funds one band, and they had planned to host five. The group originally asked for $2,500, and SAFC provided the group with the money. The con speeches given brought this point up. Eckland admitted this was an error, and said the group wants to make the festival an all day event.
“It really is in memory of a Northwestern student, and it is a fundraising event,” Eckland said.
Senate voted down the motion, and $450 was then requested and passed.
7:03 p.m. A&O Chairman Adam Pumm asked for $4,000 to be added in order to move a concert venue for A&O Ball from Patten Gymnasium to the Riviera Theater in uptown Chicago which will allow for 800 more students to attend. Pumm said the venue costs $6,000. The motion passed causing the appropriations to go into a $1,935 deficit.
7:11 p.m.: One Voice motioned to add $4,500 for staging and lighting for the group’s spring show.
Willard Senator Beau Becker spoke against the motion, and said the amount of money would take up about half of the appropriations money.
The motion failed, and One Voice proposed $3,200 which then passed.
7:22 p.m.: The remaining appropriations is at a deficit of $5,135. The cut round will occur again to bring the amount of appropriations to $0.
7:24 p.m.: A motion was made to cut $400 from sound and sight for CSA. In a con speech, Sun said there are better places in the funding cycle to take money away from and stressed the fundraising efforts the group would have to endure.
7:27 p.m.: A large bag of candy including Reeses and Hershey Kisses made its way around the room as the meeting reached the hour and a half mark.
7:30 p.m.: The motion to cut failed, and another motion was made to cut $150 from CSA. Once again, the motion failed and a suggested $500 cut from CSA’s honorarium was introduced.
“We are an important niche of Northwestern’s community,” Sun said. “To continuously cut from us in unreasonable. If you want to cut $500, I’m okay with that as long as we looked at all other options.”
“Money is so tight right now, and everybody will say they need this money,” Jones said in a pro speech. “But you have to start looking at different things.”
The motion passed, and $500 was cut from CSA.
7:50 p.m.: Becker made a motion to cut $150 from Rainbow Alliance’s xerox and color printer funds.
Rainbow Alliance Senator Jeffrey Geiger made a con speech and said it would be a continuous drain on their funds if the $150 was not given. The motion failed.
7:55 p.m.: A motion was made from a member of Verse Tour to cut $500 from its honorarium which drew applause from the entire Senate. The motion passed unanimously.
7:56 p.m.: Becker once again made a motion, this time proposing to cut $398 from Lovers and Madmen for its drills fund. He said as an engineer he knows there a drills available in Ford. Another senator made a point of clarification saying training was required to use the work areas in Ford.
Before voting, a motion was made to cut from $398 to $199 as a compromise. The motion failed, and the original motion failed.
8:07 p.m.: As chocolate chip cookies were passed around, a proposed cut of $250 from Lovers and Madmen’s lumber was made. The motion passed, making the deficit $3, 885.
8:13 p.m. A recommendation was made by Senator Barry McCardel for Senate to use its $7,500 pool which has not been spent so far. No further action was taken on this idea.
8:15 p.m.: A motion was made to cut $55 from UNITY.
Pandse asked for the side chatter to be cut from the room so speakers could be heard.
The motion failed.
8:20 p.m.: NCDC’s co-chair made a motion to cut $300 from its honorarium. The motion passed.
8:25 p.m.: A motion from a WAVE representative was made to cut $100 from its printer fund drawing more applause from the room. The motion passed. The deficit is now at $3,485.
8:26 p.m.: SEED Senator Julia Brook motioned to cut $150 from SEED’s honorarium and $100 from PhilFest. The motion passed.
8:30 p.m.: Becker motioned cutting $600 from Alianza’s computer fund. Jones gave a con speech and said the computers are sustainable and will be used for years to come. SAFC said they have never not funded a computer, and every
one in this round who asked for one received it. The motion failed, and $100 was proposed instead because Alianza originally asked for $500. Again, the motion failed.
8:35 p.m.: Brook motioned to cut $500 from publicity and venue change. An amendment was made to cut the venue change down to $2,000.
“We’re here to bring more students and generate more revenue which would be able to give us a return on our investment,” McCardel said in a con speech. “Let us move it to the Riv and put on the show we want to put on.”
The amendment failed, and another amendment was made to take money from the ASG Senate pool to make up for the deficit. However, this point cannot yet be taken into consideration until the motion is decided upon.
8:50 p.m. Brook said she felt cutting $500 would not affect A&O holding the concert at the Riv.
“What makes you qualified to say that?” Pumm said in return.
As the room slowly began to empty, Jones asked if it was unreasonable for A&O to raise $500.
“This is a venue we have to book now,” McCardel said. “We can’t run off the assumption that we’ll be able to raise $500. That’s just not realistic to us.”
The vote failed because McCardel said A&O was willing to cut $500 from its winter speaker honorarium. The motion passed, and the deficit is at $2, 735.
9:00 p.m.: As the meeting entered its third hour, a movement was made to use the ASG Senate Project pool to cover the remaining costs.
“This is money we’ve taken directly from students with the intention of going directly toward students,” said SAFC member Jeff Cao to applause. “We’re here to support student groups let’s actually do it.”
Senators debated whether or not they should move through cutting the remaining student groups before allotting the ASG money.
Senate voted to cover the deficit, but continued to move through the list.
9:10 p.m.: A senator motioned to cut $200 from One Voice’s stage and lighting. The motion failed.
9:17 p.m.: A motion to end supplemental budget enthusiastically passed.
