The Student Association has decided to collaborate with University Union to bring a political speaker for its 50th birthday celebration next semester.

The association requested $42,138 from the appeals fund after failing a bill last Monday that would have allocated it about $80,000 for the speaker. The Finance Board recommended funding the request in full. The bill was passed unanimously at last night’s Assembly meeting.

‘We really feel this is going to be a really, really solid event,’ said Chief of Staff Ryan Kelly, who is helping to plan the event.

The celebration is set to take place from Sept. 18 to 22. Also included in the celebration will be a carnival and open house, among other events.

UU President Dennis Jacobs, who was also present at last night’s meeting, said he and other UU leaders met with Kelly and others involved in planning the event and discussed co-sponsoring. He voiced his support of the collaboration.

‘We’re really, really into this,’ he said.

Parliamentarian Ryan Doyle requested that UU give written documentation of its agreement.

Kelly expressed a possibility of bringing a group of student leaders together to discuss which speaker to bring.

Other student organizations that had been denied funding during last week’s budget meeting also received money from the appeals fund. The Caribbean Student Association, which had not received funding for its Caribfest concert, received $17,999.07 from the appeals fund. The Black Artist League received $14,316.90 for its ‘You Got Jokes?’ comedy show, which will bring three comedians to campus next semester.

But UU, which had appealed for $46,859.25 for a Tier 2 concert that had not received funding last week, was recommended $0 by the Finance Board. Comptroller Michael Brannen said UU can apply next semester for that money from the special programming fund.

In other SA news, President Wayne Horton read a statement he prepared on his official reaction to recent offensive content in The Daily Orange, specifically the gospel review that appeared in the paper’s April 18 edition.

Horton voiced his opinion about the article, saying he will ‘not tolerate any kind of discriminatory content from anyone,’ because it is his job to ensure the protection of all students’ rights.

On the day after the review was published, Horton began drafting a resolution that would request a faculty adviser in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications be appointed to The D.O. to assist in preventing racist content from appearing in print. He had spoken to the editors of the paper beforehand and had discussed the actions The D.O. will take to educate its editors and writers about content, such as diversity training. Believing this training would not be enough, he suggested an adviser.

According to Horton’s statement, various members of the administration agreed with Horton’s suggestion after he asked them for feedback; however, several SA representatives said they would not support the bill because they did not believe a faculty adviser was a good idea, so instead of proposing the bill, Horton drafted his statement.

‘From now on, even beyond my term as president, I will make it my mission to work with The Daily Orange on any initiative we all agree to pursue to stop editors and writers from writing that type of hurtful content,’ Horton said.

Later, Horton said his statement was not meant to attack the paper.

‘It’s about an organization that has flaws … and (Horton and The D.O.) taking the necessary steps to correct those flaws,’ he said.

Chair of Academic Affairs Joe Wieder announced the university will be changing the minimum grade point average requirement to 2.75 for students with academic and competitive scholarships. SA had passed a bill recommending the university raise the minimum on March 26. The requirement will affect incoming students in fall 2007, but the policy will be enacted before summer, Wieder said.

Published on May 1, 2006 at 12:00 pm