The following covers the meeting on April 10.
Climate Check
Secretary Alexis Aguallo asked why majors are not included on diplomas, and President Danny Nguyen told her to ask the registrar. Junior Senator Joy Areola brought up several housing concerns she had heard, like female students ending up in rooms with male students and a student unknowingly being placed in a room with an emotional support animal they’re allergic to. President Nguyen recommended reaching out to Rachel Boaz-Toppel of Residential Life.
Officer Reports
DEI Chair Trinity Hatchett had two major announcements. The first was asking people to sign up to help with the block party event on April 19. The second was calling for a decision on Class of 2025 senator runoff elections, which, it had already been decided, would be a school-wide election. Option A would be to have the elections next week, and Option B would be doing them in September with the first-year elections. Advisor Bernadette Buchanan voiced support for Option A for fear of losing interested candidates who might take on other commitments rather than wait for SGA. DEI Chair Hatchett expressed that the election committee supported Option B to avoid creating stress during a busy time in the semester for students who want to run and to ensure a lack of scheduling conflicts.
At the very end of the meeting, senior Senator Nadesh Vaithianathan motioned in favor of Option B, and the motion passed.
USO Funding Presentations
All deliberations were carried out after all the presentations had been completed, but for the sake of clarity, all discussion about a proposal is included in that proposal.
Greek Council. Requesting $30,960.00.
Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) is made up of seven fraternities and 11 sororities and comprises 25% of the student body. FSL has seen continued interest and growth, and Greek Council has had successes with different workshops and Greek Unity events this year. To continue their successes and expand in certain areas, like collaborating with other local universities’ FSL communities, they are requesting $30,960.00.
Junior Senator Allison Waters inquired about the speaker line item and whether the $5,000 was just for one speaker, and the presenters clarified that the money was just for one speaker. DEI Chair Hatchett asked for examples of their recruitment events, which the speakers then said included tailgates, food trucks after Greek 101 and Greek Olympics. Senior Senator Lucy Orosco asked about the senior sendoff line item, and the presenters told her that it is an event where seniors in FSL can reflect on their experiences and prepare for life after graduation.
In deliberations, Senator Orosco said that Greek Council does a lot for their budget, and first-year Senator Claire Binns noted that FSL includes a quarter of the campus population. A few senators suggested possible areas for cuts, though with the qualification that these suggestions were nitpicky. Ultimately, the senators agreed that there was not much room for cutting. In a straw poll, the majority of senators indicated they were leaning toward fully funding Greek Council.
Student Programming Board. Requesting $196,655.00.
This year, Student Programming Board’s (SPB) successes include having 500 students at the tailgate co-hosted with SGA and Greek Council, 550 students at Chocolate Fest and 330 at the spring concert. SPB looks to start new initiatives next year, like a headphone disco and including more small events throughout the year. They plan to create standard operating procedures and implement a project management tool called Asana to deal with some of the onboarding and lack of accountability problems they’ve faced. Their request came out to $196,655.00, an increase from this year’s budget specifically to get a bigger name for the concert.
President Nguyen asked what successes and challenges they faced with the spring concert, along with what they may want to improve. The presenters said that their big success was that the students in attendance seemed to have a good time, but the fact that it was all their first time planning a concert caused some issues. Stage prices had increased due to inflation, and marketing ran behind because everything had to be approved by the artist and their team.
Sophomore Senator Khushi Kakadia inquired about the PR and marketing line item, for which they were requesting the same amount next year even though they had not spent a lot of it. The presenters said that next year, they would try to have more of a distinction regarding what that money is used for. Sophomore Senator asked where the Chocolate Fest budget had gone this year, and the presenters said that it had gone to sweatshirts, balloon arches, other theming items and the chocolate fountain and charcuterie board from Chartwells.
The senators were much more critical of SPB’s proposal in their deliberations, given the significant increase requested. Junior Senator Harrison Tinker noted that the fact there hadn’t been a concert since 2021 speaks volumes, and Collaborations Chair Natalie Kim, who had previously been in SPB, added that the members of SPB knew that this year’s concert had been a flop, though she said that gave them motivation to improve.
Senator Waters brought up an issue with the Chocolate Fest request, specifically that more money was not being allotted to the popular sweatshirts. She also questioned why they needed to go to a campus activities conference. Senator Orosco voiced an issue with the amount of smaller events, since big events are what SPB is known for, and other senators echoed that concern. Legislative Relations Chair Nina Pollak was concerned with the fact that there was a lot of money remaining on the line items, but that SPB was then asking for more.
A straw poll indicated that most senators were in favor of funding SPB somewhere in between what was funded for this year and what is being asked for next year.
Trinity Diversity Connection. Requesting $43,885.19.
Trinity Diversity Connection (TDC) includes about 20 students working to promote DEI on campus and is comprised of three committees: Dialogues, Collaborations and Traditions. Each committee puts on a handful of events each semester. They plan to make some internal changes for next year, like combining two roles into the PR chair role and restructuring member training. They are requesting $43,885.19.
Senator Waters asked about the member appreciation line item that goes toward $50 gift cards for the committee members, which the presenters said rewarded the hard work of unpaid committee members. Senator Orosco asked how many people go to the Dialogues events and why there are six of them. The presenters responded that attendance is variable but that the average is 45 or 50 people, and the events take place about once a month. Assistant Treasurer Avery Lim asked about a discrepancy she had noted doing the math for how much of their budget would be left over from this year vs. the increase the organization is asking for next year. The presenters insisted that there would not be as much left over as she calculated.
Junior Senator Joy Areola said in deliberations that TDC’s budget was not to the same standard as other organizations that had presented, with a ton of overspending and underspending in different areas. Junior Senator Ella Charbonnet echoed her concern, voicing a worry that they wouldn’t know where the money was going exactly. Senator Vaithianathan said that there typically did not end up being as many Dialogues as they were requesting for, and he was one of a majority of senators who were in favor of cutting the item going to gift cards. In a straw poll, the majority of senators supported funding TDC less than the amount they had received for this year.
