With only a few days to cool off, members of the Student Government Association will convene tonight to discuss the ever-so-controversial flag motion.

The motion that drew controversy when brought before the Senate last spring has once again been raised from its grave by Senators this year. The motion asks for the State of Massachusetts and American flags to be present at every SGA Senate meeting.

The motion was tabled at last week’s Senate meeting due to the Diversity Committee’s request to review the motion prior to it being voted on by the Senate. While discussing the motion at the Diversity Committee’s meeting on Nov. 29, a physical fight occurred between former Senator Pat DeCourcy and Secretary of Finance Gabriel Tavares regarding the motion and internal conflicts.

“There was a lot of debate regarding the motion, and my main concern was how it would effect diversity on campus,” Scott Turnberg, Chair of Diversity said. “I’m opposed to the motion, but I support my committee’s decision. I think it will be interesting to see what happens when it goes to the Senate.”

The issue of violence, and what could happen tonight, has also been an issue among Senate members and students. Speaker Aaron Saunders explained that violence is in no way acceptable and that he won’t tolerate that kind of behavior in Senate. Turnberg and Saunders also both expressed that they felt the motion itself had already taken up too much of the Senate’s time, and were questioning its relevancy.

“We’ve dedicated an awful lot of time on this internal motion, and I don’t know how much it will affect the Senate,” Saunders said. “What good is really coming from this motion and is it a valid concern. We need to be focused on issues that affect the students and not internal issues.”

Other issues affecting the Senate are those surrounding the budget outlook for the future of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the SGA as a whole. With a recent 12 million dollar cut in higher education by the government, members of the SGA have been looking into what effects it will have on the SGA and students at UMass.

“The budget cuts as a whole will hurt us, in the fact that the Student Activities Trust Fund [SATF] will also be cut due to a lack of funds,” Saunders said. “We’re looking to be cut up to $20,000, which means that student businesses are going to be effected.”

Saunders continued by explaining that the SGA is looking at ways to avoid major financial cuts. One idea was increasing the student activities fee. The $75 fee is currently included into every student’s tuition; however, the SGA is looking at the possibility of increasing the fee up to five more dollars.

“In the fall Senate elections, we placed a referendum question on the ballot requesting students’ opinions on a three dollar increase, and we received an overwhelmingly positive response,” Saunders said. “It would not be an enormous increase, and we as a University are going to be scraping for whatever we can get.”

Other motions being presented tonight will be that involving financial allocations, and separating the University Public Policy and Relations committee into two separate committees. The split would separate University Policy and University Public Relations into two individual committees. And finally, a motion will be presented requesting for a search committee for a new SCARA (Student Center for Educational Research and Advocacy) director.

“It should be an interesting meeting with lots of good debate,” Saunders said. “People are really skeptical about things right now, and it will be interesting to see how everything presented will play out.”

Tonight’s SGA Senate meeting will take place at 7:15 p.m. in Room 168 of the Campus Center.