The Student Association met Monday to elect new Finance Board members, vote on special programming requests and, in a closed session, discuss comments from the administration regarding the operation of SA.

The assembly passed all of the finance board’s six budget recommendations for funding from the special programming fund, a roll-over account of unused funds previously allocated to student organizations.

The assembly voted to approve an allocation of $60,000 to University Union Concerts to potentially hold a concert for a well-known artist. Adam Gorode, co-chair of UU Concerts, said possible artists for concert, which could be on April 26, include the Black Eyed Peas or Incubus.

‘All of these artists are artists very capable of coming to campus,’ Gorode said.

The assembly also voted to allow the College Republicans to bring a Republican speaker to the University for $16,338 April 13. According to Comptroller Andrew Urankar, the College Republicans plan to bring a speaker costing $15,000, a person who would be of the same caliber as Newt Gingrich, who himself is a possibility.

The assembly passed a budget recommendation of $10,000 for the National Pan-Hellenic Council’s Greek Unity Fest April 14.

The assembly approved all six candidates to the Finance Board. The Finance Board is now comprised of: Phillip Burke, a junior majoring in drama and sociology; Michael Brannen, a sophomore majoring in psychology; Mehwish Iqbal, a sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management; Danerys Gutierrez, a freshman in the School of Management; Darius Pakrooh, a sophomore majoring in finance and accounting and Selina Wangila, a freshman in the College of Human Services and Health Professions.

‘We’ve put together a great team; I think they’re going to make fair decisions,’ said parliamentarian Joan Gabel.

However, the new Finance Board will not be able to make budget recommendations until the fall.

SA voted to close the meeting to non-SA members at 8:40 p.m. for 12 minutes. The cabinet made a unanimous decision to move to close the meeting, Gabel said. The assembly voted 15 to five in favor of closing the meeting.

During the closed meeting, SA reviewed comments made by administrators to the cabinet during a breakfast meeting over the weekend regarding the operation of SA.

‘We wanted to make sure those comments made by the administration were kept private and there were no public repercussions for what they said,’ Gabel said.

Non-SA members were allowed back into the room at 10:02 p.m., 10 minutes longer than initially proposed.

‘I’m the biggest person on transparency,’ said SA president Travis Mason following readmitting non-SA members into the meeting.

SA did not vote on a proposed media policy which was tentatively scheduled for a vote Monday night. Gabel said the vote was delayed because the cabinet wanted to further discuss the media policy to make it as fair as possible.

Published on February 28, 2005 at 12:00 pm