The Associated Student Government’s final meeting of Spring Quarter saw $55,500 in allocations across 17 clubs.
Wednesday’s meeting began with roughly $58,600 tentatively allocated from last week’s Student Activities Finance Committee appeals “Funding Senate” meeting, which ended late with tensions high and without any money allocated. The meeting was then rescheduled to this week after ASG’s co-presidents diverted an additional $5,500 to the total available funding pool.
Senators had to cut the total by roughly $3,000 to meet their budget.
For Members Only took home the greatest total allocation, receiving $11,600 for second stage Dillo Day artists, an intercollegiate cookout and a speaker series. NU Mock Trial followed, securing $10,000 for travel funds.
The meeting kicked off differently than usual. Senators and ASG Cabinet members held a closed conversation with Tracey Gibson-Jackson, director of student activities and ASG’s advisor, to discuss meeting decorum and procedures.
“The last couple weeks, I think some of us have not shown up as ourselves,” Gibson-Jackson said during the Senate meeting. “I’ve been hearing about some of the unkindness, some of the nastiness; so I came to simply address it and say ‘Check it at the door.’”
Due to the rescheduled meeting, several club leaders appeared via Zoom, while others attended in person to speak and convince the Senate not to cut their funding.
Medill junior and Mock Trial fundraising executive member Lillian Ali, a current Daily staffer, said the club hoped to send more students to its tournaments, asking the Senate to maintain the tentative $10,000 allocation from last week’s meeting — which it did.
“We need to send our students to a minimum of certain tournaments to maintain our national standing,” Ali said during the meeting. “We don’t really have another way of getting this kind of funding for travel, specifically.”
Ali added that as a tour guide, she frequently advertises Mock Trial’s national ranking to prospective students. She said it can factor heavily into college decisions for students interested in the club.
The International Student Association pocketed $1,500 Wednesday night to host social events.
McCormick sophomore and ISA co-President Maria Bejjani said the club needed support now more than ever due to federal crackdowns on international students.
“Having these events and being able to host them with no entry fee is really important for all our members and just to ensure that Northwestern remains an inclusive space for everyone,” Bejjani said.
Weinberg junior and ASG Speaker Kaitlyn Salgado-Alvarez and SESP freshman and ASG Parliamentarian JJ Nabors-Moore enforced the Senate’s rules more strictly than last week to ensure a succinct meeting, Salgado-Alvarez said in an email to senators.
Senators were allotted ten minutes each to discuss a specific club’s funding decisions. If that time wasn’t enough, a maximum of five extra minutes was given once all other clubs’ funding was discussed.
ASG leadership also enforced a “strikes” system for conduct. If a particular senator received three strikes for violating floor rules, they would be asked to leave. No senators received any strikes during the meeting.
This meeting also had a hard cutoff time of 10 p.m. It ended around 9 p.m.
Weinberg freshman and Deputy Speaker of the Senate Rayan Lahlou-Nabil told The Daily the strict rules contributed to the meeting’s brisk two-hour runtime, an improvement from last week’s six-hour slog.
“We were able to have a lot of voices from senators speak and give their opinion,” Lahlou-Nabil said. “With the success we had today and the efficiency, we will be using these rules for future Funding Senates.”
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