Senate finalizes all front-end budgets

SGA passes four additional amendments

The Student Government Association passed four more amendments to front-end budgeted groups before passing all the budgets Tuesday.

The first amendment that was passed put $291 back into the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons budget for its Image Awards.

This would make its total amount for the awards show $891.

"I feel we are giving them what they asked for," said sophomore Mackenzie Shimon, Arts and Letters Senator, who co-sponsored the amendment.

Freshman Lauren Khair, at-large senator who also proposed the amendment, said they were under-funded last year by nine awards and by passing this amendment, the NAACP can make sure "each person can get the award they deserved."

However, junior Matt Gray, chair of the finance committee, said it should not receive this additional money. "If they wanted more they should have asked for more," he said. He pointed out that NAACP asked for $600 and it originally received $600.

Sophomore Wesli Spencer, sophomore Class Council president, said NAACP members "were advised not to ask for more money than last year."

Sophomore Bryan Harvey, Wayland Hall senator, said he felt there was a miscommunication between the SGA and NAACP on requesting funds.

"I don't think this group was advised as well as they should have been," he said.

Karen Mercer, the finance committee adviser, explained the steps taken to ensure that each group fully understands the entire FEB process. She said the NAACP was trained to use the same requirements as other groups.

Khair said, "These awards fulfill their mission statement, and FEB is all about fulfilling the mission statements."

The next amendment was proposed by sophomore John Slossan, Wampler Hall senator, which was passed to add $325 to the Sports Club Council's budget for tournament trophys.

Slossan's next amendment also passed to remove $1,500 from the Sports Club Council's budget for a volleyball coach and to put it back into contingency.

He said that the SCC's first priority was to fund the equestrian club's coach because they needed one in order to compete, for which the equestrian team got half. He said he did not understand why SGA then funded some of the volleyball coaches which was second in priority.

The treasurer of SCC said the money needs to be in their budget because if it's not in the budget, they can not purchase it because all money the team has or uses must be documented. He also pointed out that the club volleyball team fund raises its ownfunds a lot, and that it would not be fair asking them to raise money that would not go toward themselves, but that would instead go into the larger budget.

Junior Ricardo Pineres, Ashby Hall senator, then proposed an amendment, that passed, to take $1,500 from contingency and place it into a miscellaneous fund for the Sports Club Council.

Sophomore parliamentarian Michael Dickie simplified the amendment and said that a vote for "yes" in it would be asking the volleyball team to reduce its fund-raising efforts by $1,500 and an opposing vote would have it to raise the $1,500.

The Senate then voted on the budgets as a whole and they unanimously were approved. The budgets now go to the Executive Council.