The Student Government Association held its 1890th regular senate meeting Wednesday, April 12 in the Student Union Cape Cod Lounge.
The meeting began with a presentation from Tamari Rogers, a biology major and current treasurer of the SoulTV student organization on campus. SoulTV is an organization dedicated to student creativity through various mediums, including “TV, Print, Radio, Music, Art, Fashion and Design.”
SoulTV requested $5,000 to fund their Club Renaissance Fashion Show, an event at the end of Race to SoulNik week, which includes many events hosted by the RSO. The funding will go towards the event’s sound and lighting systems, which include a DJ and light-up video walls.
The fashion show will be held April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Student Union Ballroom.
Representatives from the Asian American Student Association (AASA) followed with a presentation requesting approximately $25,000 in emergency funding for their annual Asian Night.
Asian Night features student performers as well as guest artists from the Asian/Asian-American community. The event is typically held at the Fine Arts Center, however, due to the late start of the semester, scheduling conflicts arose leaving them unable to book the venue.
The requested funds will go towards the unexpected booking of the Mullins Center for the event.
AASA emphasized the importance of keeping the event free for the nearly 4,000 projected attendees. The event has been free for the last 38 years and is an integral part of the University’s Asian community.
“Asian Night: Memories in Motion” will be held April 22 at 6 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
The SGA approved the funding requests of both groups.
Following the pitches from SoulTV and AASA, the Senate took a 30-minute recess for those partaking in Ramadan fasting.
During Senate announcements, Ian Harvey, a political science and legal studies major and chair of the Ways and Means Committee, announced that the SGA was able to allocate an additional $300,000 for registered student organizations for the next academic year.
For student organizations such as AASA, this is an important decision, as they experienced budget cuts up to 50 percent last year.
Lastly, the Senate voted in favor of amending the general bylaws regarding election season.
According to Patrick Collins, a political science major and chair of the Administrative Affairs Committee, many members of the SGA noted insufficiencies of the election season including a short timeline and ineffective election process.
The largest change to the bylaw states that the Elections Commission, the group responsible for planning the election season, will be elected along with the other members of the cabinet in the spring, rather than in the fall. This is to ensure the group has ample time to properly plan the election season.
Grace Lee can be reached at [email protected].
Nathan Legare can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @NathanLegare23.
