While some students have begun their journey back home to indulge in some holiday favorites, the Student Government Association (SGA) senate met to fund several Registered Student Organization events and to finish unresolved business from the past two weeks yesterday.

In the basement of the Campus Center, the SGA settled the most-discussed motion for the past two weeks by voting to appoint Nate Hoffman as the Elections Chancellor after Commuter Residential Area Gov. Emily Burden chose him as the most qualified candidate.

Burden failed to appoint an elections chancellor, who heads the elections commission which runs SGA elections, by the Oct. 15 deadline. Burden was given another chance last week to appoint a chancellor after not being aware of her responsibility to appoint a chancellor in the way discussed in the bylaws

Hoffman served on the election commission last year and several senators picked him to be appointed two weeks ago, before Burden was given the chance to make her appointment a second time.

Associate Speaker of the SGA senate Hayley Mandeville, who was filling in as speaker for Jared Rose, swore in freshman Southwest-south senator Willis Chen. Chen was appointed to the vacant seat last week.

The senate allocated $1,800 to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life field lighting. The funding goes toward renting and operating eight flood lights to illuminate the all-night-long Five College event at the unlit Amherst College track.

Last year’s event involved 4,000 participants and raised over $125,000. Funding motion sponsor and SGA finance committee chair Garrett Gowen argued that funding the event will allow the money raised to go towards the cause rather than toward maintenance. The SGA will be an event sponsor.

Sisters on the Runway “make a great difference to our campus,” Anand said. The funding will go toward food and drinks, and the event raises money to fight domestic violence.

The Haitian American Student Association was given $1,164 for “A Paradise Unseen,” an event which celebrates Latin American culture and raises money for “Keep a Child Alive,” an organization that fights AIDS. The funding will go towards security, police and crowd control.

The senate also approved a new rule that will allow the speaker of the senate to excuse up to three absences for senators that miss meetings due to academic or extra-curricular activities.

Sam Hayes can be reached at [email protected].