Associated Student Government leadership said the body plans to continue reforming finance distribution in Winter Quarter and will also hold social justice training workshops for all committee chairs and members through the 2022-23 academic year. 

The organization allocated $66,609.27 in additional funding to student groups requesting increased financial support at the last ASG Senate meeting on Nov. 16. 

ASG President and Weinberg senior Jason Hegelmeyer said he and the executive board have met with the Office of the Provost weekly to secure additional funds. He said ASG had been consistently running out of money to distribute. ASG executives requested the increased funding for food and transportation costs, among other routine expenses, according to ASG leaders.

“We’ve been talking about how we can restructure our budget and just get more money in our budget,” Hegelmeyer said.

ASG voted to fund all 27 student groups that requested additional funding Fall Quarter. 

Hegelmeyer said accommodating all requests was important for increasing community building on campus, which remains an ASG priority. 

“ASG in the past didn’t really fund food for all groups unless it was tied to a cultural event on campus,” Hegelmeyer said. “Now we’re making an argument that there would be way more community on campus if (organizations) could fund food or transportation when it is essential, especially for smaller organizations that wouldn’t have gotten funding in the past.”

A past Daily investigation found that although ASG’s funding pool increased over the past decade, groups were disproportionately funded across categories.

ASG Senate also discussed two key pieces of legislation from Fall Quarter, including an initiative to increase its website activity and a bill to encourage student influence in the body’s legislative priorities.

Speaker of the Senate and Weinberg junior Dylan Jost said Senate members grew more comfortable in their positions last quarter and are prepared to author more reform in the upcoming months. 

“The main goal of Fall Quarter was to just make sure people know how to write legislation, what legislation is and what the purpose of legislation is,” Jost said. “The goal of Winter Quarter (is) to bring what we did in Fall Quarter and expand on it.”

ASG passed the bill on increasing student participation in legislative affairs Nov. 8. The legislation created a new process by which individuals can use a Google Form to voice legislative priorities or campus-related concerns. 

Hegelmeyer said the Google Form will help ASG better represent the desires of its constituency while organizing its agenda. 

“I think ASG’s number one criticism is that we’re not really listening to the student body or we’re not listening to student concerns, demands and issues,” Hegelmeyer said. “Having a more direct connection or platform for student feedback will be very helpful in the way we structure and organize the issues we talk about for the rest of the year.”

Multiple ASG leadership members also emphasized a desire to respond more to student demands and ideas through collaborative legislation.

Chief of Staff and Weinberg junior Stephanie Shields said the newly implemented Google Form system will bridge the gap between the student body and the senators who propose and author legislation.

“We haven’t seen much legislation introduced by the Senate yet this year,” Shields said. “(The senators) are all very new and have only been in their positions for a few weeks, so that is normal and expected. But I’m really excited, and I really hope that the student body takes advantage of this new system.”

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @JulianAndreone

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