Student Senate met for three and a half hours Tuesday evening,staying passed 7 p.m., as student body officers and senators wadedtheir way through a slew of residual requests, code changes andseveral pieces of new and old legislation.
The finance committee went over 42 organizations’ requestsfor monies from the residual fund. The committee recommended giving20 organizations a combined $30,000. (A full list of all residualrequests and actual allocations can be found online atsmudailycampus.com.)
Student Body Secretary Gabe Travers presented the remaining 32proposals to change the Student Code of Conduct.
Last week, he presented the first 19 proposals, which Senateapproved Tuesday, after a lot of discussion about one particularproposed change involving the wording of alcohol procedures onbuses. The new section, as amended by the Senate, will now read,”Alcoholic beverages may not be present at any time on buseson University property unless all passengers are 21 years of age orolder.”
Senators also voted on four pieces of legislation, introducedlast week.
First to be approved, in a spit vote, was a bill to fund $249for 1,000 funding brochures. The brochures will detail the variousways student organizations can request money from StudentSenate.
Several senators expressed concerns that the brochures wouldsoon lose their timeliness. Currently, a senate committee isexamining the budgetary process with the hopes of streamlining theprocess. According to Sen. Adam Hill, the committee is alsoreviewing the various ways student organizations request money,which might render the brochures invalid as early as February, whenthe committee is hoping to present its findings.
Second on the docket was a bill to fund $675 to Omega Delta Phi,to assist the fraternity in hosting a regional conference. Senatepassed the bill to fund in full.
Student senators unanimously voted to approve legislationfudning $5,390 to the Alternative Spring Break program and $600 fora Ramadan dinner, where all students are welcome to attend afterthe day-long campus-wide Fast-A-Thon.
Appropriations Chair Alex Prima presented one item of newbusiness, recommending $28 for the environmental committee. The $28will go allow the environmental committee to purchase half of thestake signs and fliers it intended to use for an upcoming recyclingevent.
The environmental committee also requested $80 to join theRecycling Alliance of Texas, but Prima said she and her committeefelt it was not the job of the appropriations committee to make thedecision of whether or not the university, as a whole, would join astate-wide alliance.
Sen. Rafael Alvarez said he would work with the environmentalcommittee to first submit a request to the executive committee,made up of the student body officers, and – pending theirrecommendation – would then file a second appropriationsrequest for the $80.
Senators approved the appropriations committee’srecommendation from last week to fund $830 to the MulticulturalGreek Council. The council will use the money to create direct-mailpostcards to assist in recruitment.
On the docket
• A bill to fund $2,000 to Victory Campus Ministries for aninternational Thanksgiving dinner.
• A bill to fund ACM Student Chapter $586 to attend ACMInternational Collegiate programming competition in Baton Rouge,La.
• A resolution expressing SMU Student Senate’scontinued commitment to SMU Rides.
