SGA issues Bill of Opinion, discusses FEB allotments

Morgan Riehl / staff photographer Senior Lyndsey Walther-Thomas, left, who is running for Student Government Assosication President, talks during the SGA meeting Tuesday night in PC Ballroom.

Issuing its first Bill of Opinion of the year and discussing Front-End Budgeting, or priority status, the Student Government Association met Tuesday. For over 11 hours during its annual FEB night, the SGA debated over amendments ultimately affecting the amount of money each organization would receive for the 2003-'04 academic year.

The nine FEB groups are the University Program Board, Panhellenic Society, International Fraternity Council, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Sports Club Council, Student Ambassadors, Student Government Association, Campus Assault ResponsE and Black Student Association.

The first Bill of Opinion of the year also was discussed. The bill, upholding the formation of a university funded Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Resource Center passed almost unanimously with one dissenting vote.

"Bills of Opinion are the highest form of student opinion on this campus … I think this is a very clear way of saying we strongly support diversity," said senior Connie Maxwell, College of Arts & Letters Senator.

Junior Andrea Fischetti, vice president of administrative affairs, agreed. "This is going further than what anyone anticipated," she said. "For example, Q101 wants to do an interview with what JMU is doing with LGBT."

Maxwell, speaking on behalf of SGA, said they hope to see the LBGT Resource Center similar to the current JMU Women's Resource Center.

"We'd like it to be staffed by a part-time grad person, kind of like how the Women's Resource Center is done," Maxwell said.

"We kept the bill pretty vague," she said, "because we want it to be open to discretion … just gave an outline of what we'd like to see — videos, a computer, pamphlets, articles, a library of materials."

With 1,602 student signatures, SGA's almost unanimous consent and unanimous support from the Faculty Senate, the issue of such a resource center will be presented to the administration.

"Now it's just up to the administration to see how to go from here. Now they're going to figure out how to fund it and integrate it in the university," Maxwell said.

SGA also performed several cuts on its own budget, reallocating the money to contingency. The contingency is a pool of money from which non-FEB clubs recognized by Student Organization Services can request.

According to sophomore Tom Culligan, director of SGA communications, at the meeting's conclusion, the contingency funds rose to approximately $32,000 from a previous $24,000.

However, this amount will change since the meeting recessed early yesterday morning. It will be continued at next Tuesday's SGA meeting, according to Culligan.

"We ended debate at 4 a.m. and will be going back into amendments that could be made on any FEB organization next week," said Greek Row Senator Dianna Schwartz, a senior.

"The tensions were running high and emotions getting involved because of the late hour, and we decided it would be best to hold off," she said.

The fact that SGA had extra contingency than originally thought played into extending the meeting as well.

"Because we had more contingency than we originally budgeted for, we're going back in and allowing people to make amendments which will potentially give FEB groups back the money that finance committee had originally cut," Schwartz said.

Executive Assistant Megan Sette, a junior, said, "As of now, everyone is pretty much getting what they want."

Schwartz said, "It might not be exactly what they had requested for, but everyone is getting what the finance committee allocated for them, so far."

According to Culligan, the debates occured because of controversy between what the finance committee felt should be in the contingency fund and what the senators thought.

Sette said, "The debate boiled down to whether more money should be allocated to FEB groups to better serve students or to leave it in contingency.

"So either way, everyone agreed to better serve students," she said. "It's just a matter of how."