Newly-inducted senators had their training wheels removed duringthe Senate’s regular Tuesday meeting as contentious debatearose over whether and to what extent the body should providefunding for two separate events organized by a coalition ofinternational student groups and Mobilization of VolunteerEfforts.
Although the senators voted to approve both pieces oflegislation, old and new senators received several lessons inparliamentary procedure throughout the four-hour meeting as SpeakerJeff Pope continually had to interrupt discussion to organizediscussion.
The first bill, introduced by Sen. Horacio Ruiz, seeking $2,064for a Mediterranean Concert sponsored by Global Connections, thePersian Student Society and the Turkish Student Association, calledfor money to cover the cost of the rental of two police officers todirect traffic, the printing of tickets and six large full-colorposters, chair and table rental and miscellaneous expenses.
The concert will be free to students and $15 a ticket for thosefrom the Dallas community. Sen. Ruiz described the event as afundraiser for the organizations involved.
The Senate’s finance committee recommended that the bodyfund $1,654 for the concert, excluding the cost for the posters,ticket printing and table and chair rentals. Senate Finance ChairDaniel Kimes reported that he had little faith in hiscommittee’s recommendation, since no one from theorganization came to the committee meeting to explain theirrequests.
Several senators also raised concerns regarding information notpresented in the legislation, such as whether or not the group hadarranged for money to be set aside to rent out McFarlinAuditorium.
“This is a fundraiser,” Kimes said. “Idon’t think it’s a good idea to splash out all thismoney when there are questions about how much money these groupsare putting forward or whether they’ve even put up the moneyto rent McFarlin.”
After an hour’s debate, the Senate passed the legislationwith an amendment to fund an extra $60 for further on-campuspublicity.
“These events have a tradition of being amazingly wellattended by those outside of the community,” Meadows Sen.Michael Dorff said. “It’s important that we support theactivities of these three fairly new organizations.”
The Senate also approved funding $2,952.90 of a request for$6,379 for MOVE efforts for its Community Service Day on Oct.25.
This year, the event, part of Homecoming festivities, willfeature a barbecue afterwards where participants are encouraged toshare their experiences during the day and socialize with othervolunteers.
As the meeting passed into its third hour, the body voted todelay a vote on the issue until the Senate’s next meeting onOct. 21. But after chiding from Director of Student ActivitiesArlene Manthey about the danger of letting this issue lie untilfour days before the event, the vote was rescinded and debateresumed.
The request, introduced by Vice President Lyndsey Hummert,sought the money to pay for buses and food for the barbecue amongother expenses. However, the Senate eliminated the funds for thebuses and reduced the amount of money allocated for food,eventually approving the amended bill.
In other business, the body voted to approve a bill recommendingthe creation of a memorial for students who have died during theirtenure at the university. The legislation did not contain detailson where the memorial could be placed, where funding would comefrom and what form it would take.
The Senate will not meet next week and will resume its regularschedule on Oct. 21.
