The following covers the meeting on May 1.
GREEK COUNCIL
Voting on the funding request from Greek Council was tabled last meeting as senators did not feel like they had enough information regarding the $11,500 requested for all Greek Council members to attend the AFLV conference in San Diego to proceed to vote. Greek Council requested $31,875 in total. Vice President Kenneth Clouston, junior, reported that Greek Council treasurer Dylan Alexander had told him that the AFLV is the best conference for the council to attend given their schedules, and that it would cost $1,000 to send one member to the conference.
Sophomore senator Polo Perez proposed that they fund none of the conference line item. Perez had attended the meeting where Greek Council members presented their takeaways from this year’s conference, which occurred April 13-14. Perez felt that none of the information presented was particularly useful or new. Sophomore senator Claire Carlson also proposed that they fund none of the conference line item because she had spoken to a member of Greek Council who had described the conference as an incentive for people to run for Greek Council.
Junior senator Juana Suarez inquired about the $500 request for professional apparel, and asked if they would need it if they do not attend the conference. Junior senator Taylor Volzer suggested that they fund part of the apparel request, as SGA has funded apparel for other University-Sponsored Organizations. Sophomore senator Kathryn Holy suggested that they fund $4,000 for the conference, enough to send three members and their adviser.
First-year senator Esther Omegba asked for clarification on if Greek Council would have to follow SGA’s request or if they could reallocate funds from other line items and still attend the conference. Perez said that they could, but that would reflect poorly, especially when they come back to ask next year’s senate for funding. Junior senator Adelle Green suggested that partially funding the conference would be a good compromise, as it allows them to look into alternative conferences.
After three denied motions of $20,000, $24,074 and $22,225 and continued discussion, junior senator Grace Warner motioned to approve the amount of $24,076 for Greek Council, which would allow $4,000 for the conference and $351 for clothing. The senators were split, and Clouston approved the motion as the tiebreak vote.
TRINITONIAN
Voting on the funding request from Trinitonian was tabled last meeting after the senate voted to deny the full amount of $56,650. Clouston explained that last week, he sided against approving the full amount because he felt that $10,000 requested for the RSO advertising fund was too high. Clouston suggested that they use the next year as a trial and see how effective the RSO ads are in terms of event attendance.
First-year senator Ben Falcon proposed that they fund $8,000 of the $10,000 requested for the RSO fund, which would allow for 20 ads from RSOs each semester. Falcon explained that this amount would allow for the advertisements to be spread over two semesters and be enough for an effective trial. Falcon also explained that earlier in the semester, when the senate rejected the Trinitonian’s request for $5,000 for an advertising fund for Spring 2019, he felt that he and the rest of the recently-appointed senate were not sufficiently informed.
Falcon motioned to approve the amount of $54,650 for the Trinitonian, which would allow for $8,000 for the RSO advertising fund. The motion passed, with Volzer and first-year senator Conner Macias opposing.
CLIMATE CHECK
Suarez inquired about a student’s tweet about finding a razor in their salad from Freshii. Adviser David Tuttle explained that the “razor” was actually a piece of machinery from a lettuce-cutting machine from where the lettuce is processed off-campus.
CHICK-FIL-A RESOLUTION
The senate passed a resolution that recommended that the University stop hosting Chick-fil-A at Revolve. More information can be found here.
