The Student Association voted on four remaining budget recommendations on Monday night left over from last week’s meeting.

Fourteen Assembly members were in attendance for the meeting, said Recorder Vincent Cobb. The 25-member Assembly requires at least half of its members, or thirteen members, to attend a meeting in order to meet quorum.

The Assembly passed the Student Association’s recommended budget for $53,300 with a 6-to-7 vote and one member abstaining. Although those against the budget were in the majority for the vote, Finance Board recommendations require a two-thirds vote against a recommendation to fail. The Student Association initially requested $69,600.

SA President Travis Mason requested the Assembly fail the Student Association budget prior to the vote because he said he felt the Finance Board did not take his requests with regards to the Student Association’s budget into consideration and ‘cut very crucial items for growth.’

‘I encourage the assembly to send this bill back,’ Mason said. ‘I even put my own stipends on the line for this organization to grow. … If they needed to make cuts, they should have cut stipends first.’

In a letter attached to the Student Association budget by the Cabinet, the Cabinet requested, should cuts be made, that $8,000 for housing stipends for the SA President and Comptroller were among four items that the Cabinet considered the ‘only ‘cutable’ items.’ The SA President and Comptroller each receive $1,000 for each semester for housing and $2,000 during the summer.

Comptroller Andrew Urankar asked the Finance Board to disregard the letter during Finance Board deliberations.

‘Every student organization has the opportunity to say what they want to be cut,’ said Jessie Cordova, chair of the Board of Elections and Membership.

According to Parliamentarian Joan Gabel, the stipends were mandatory because of existing finance codes, and a code change would have had to take place before they were removed. The Cabinet decided not to change the codes prior to Finance Board deliberations because it was ‘too late in the game,’ Gabel said.

The Finance Board cut funding from the Student Association’s budget requests for OrangeSeeds. The Finance Board recommended zero dollars for photographer costs, miscellaneous funds and a retreat for the student organization.

‘We need a miscellaneous account just in case things come up,’ Mason said.

The Finance Board also did not provide any funding for a Student Association Webmaster because the student fee cannot be used to pay for a student’s salary, Gabel said. The student fee is not used for student salaries to avoid corruption, Gabel said.

The Finance Board did not fund an unnamed advertising campaign because Urankar said they could not fund for an unspecified campaign and equated doing so to funding for a miscellaneous, lump sum.

‘Three thousand for a campaign; I don’t even know what that’s for; it sounds wasteful,’ said Assembly member Steven Newler.

Mason refused to release the name of the campaign.

‘We’re not going to release the name,’ Mason said.

The Student Association failed two budget recommendations totaling about $2,000 for Zeta Phi Beta because the fraternity lost national recognition and it does not appear that it will regain recognition any time soon, Gabel said. The two bills were the only budget recommendations for next semester voted down by the Assembly.

‘When an organization loses recognition from the university in one way or another, we’re cautious in recommending funding,’ Urankar said.

The bills will return to the Finance Board for deliberation, Urankar said. Should the Finance Board recommend zero dollars for Zeta Phi Beta, the unallocated funds will be put towards the already $50,000 for appeals for funding.

The deadline for student organizations to appeal is Friday, and the Finance Board appeals deliberations will occur this weekend, Urankar said.

The Assembly once again disagreed with Mason when it did not elect Board of Trustees student representative candidate John Brenner.

‘He may not be the most articulate guy, but it takes more than articulation,’ Mason said. ‘It takes political savvyness. … John has political savvyness.’

Mason added, in the case of Brenner, who Mason said did not present an agenda, ‘in some ways it’s good not to come with an agenda.’

Brenner lost through a secret ballot in a 9-to-5 vote. Although Brenner won a majority, Board of Trustees student representatives require a two-thirds majority, Mason said.

‘I feel I don’t know this person very well; I just wasn’t that impressed,’ said Assembly member Ryan Kelly.

There are two seats for student representatives for the Board of Trustees for next year and neither has been filled, Cordova said after the meeting. There will continue to be elections for the seats until they are filled, although no one besides Brenner expressed interests in the posts, Cordova said.

Published on April 25, 2005 at 12:00 pm