The Student Association Sentate met for their second official meeting on Tuesday. They added two new senators and had a total of 18 members present, one of the highest turnouts all year.
The senate began the meeting by quickly approving the minutes from the last meeting and the agenda for the day.
The Pre-Health Club spoke to the senate about some of the programs they would like to do this semester. The club is newly formed and has no budget, so they are hoping a senator can help them write a bill to ask SA for funding.
President of Oswego State’s synchronized ice skating team, Brittany Hoffmann, spoke to the senate about a bill asking for upwards of $7,000 to send the 17 members of the team to Colorado Springs, Colo. for their sport’s national tournament.
President Anthony Smith spoke to the senate about the appointment of a new justice for the courts of SA. Ryan O’Grady introduced himself to the senate and was appointed to the rules and judiciary committee for confirmation.
Smith pointed out that some senators were not dressing up in professional attire on a weekly basis and asked them to make sure they do unless told otherwise. Typically, senators wear business attire with an occasional casual-attire day.
Smith said he would be meeting with President of Oswego State Deborah Stanley and would hopefully be discussing the use of the New Diggs web applet for off-campus living. He will also be searching for an advisor for SA.
Francisco Perez, the vice president of SA, handed out new binders with SA information to the new senators from last week. He also told the senators that senate dinners would be starting next week and he would be holding his committee chair meetings on Mondays at 5 p.m.
Director of Finance Hassan Al-Shareffi went over the monetary amounts in each account for the senators. The senate promotions fund has $1,000 in it, while the SA contingency fund has $2,000 in it. The organizational contingency fund had $5,605.74 and the joint organizational programming fund had $2,500 prior to the meeting.
Al-Shareffi said he would be sending information out to presidents and treasurers to go over how they will submit their budgets. He said the program for budget submission has been delayed due to technical difficulties out of his control.
He has been working on forming a search committee for someone to take over his job in June. Al-Shareffi said that an email was sent out to business and accounting majors who are good candidates for the job. Applications for the position are now open until March 5.
The rules and judiciary committee did not have quorum to hold an official meeting but talked about submitting senator hours on LakerLife. The finance committee went over a joint bill between WTOP and The Oswegonian, a bill from the men’s club ice hockey team, the synchronized ice skating team bill and a bill from the Red Cross Club. The involvement committee went over ideas for “meet your senator” posters and a senate-organization mixer. This would give clubs the opportunity to promote their events, but the committee wants clubs to rent table space from SA. The committee said the money would go toward refreshments at the event.
Special orders were brought to the floor beginning with a joint bill between The Oswegonian and WTOP. The bill asks SA for funding to send five members to a journalism convention in San Diego for the last weekend of February. Several senators showed support of the bill which would provide $1,742 for the organizations to use toward the trip. The bill passed 14-0-3.
The next bill was for the Oswego State club ice hockey team. They asked for additional funding to send them to their playoff tournament. The club would be attending the event with or without the funding so they were just asking for the help that SA could provide in any way. The bill was amended to give the club $250 from the original amount over $4,000. The bill passed 14-1-2.
The Red Cross Club’s bill asked for funding to send its members to Washington D.C. this March. The club had used most of their budget to book their hotel last semester and was asking for $2,000. They will be going to the Red Cross headquarters and will return with a disaster kit presentation for students scheduled for March 12. The bill was amended to give the club $400 to cover gas costs. The bill passed unanimously with 17 “yes” votes.
For general orders, the Ice Effect’s synchronized ice skating team bill requesting funding for their trip to nationals would prove to be the most debated bill of the night. For almost an hour, the senators argued over what amount they should provide to the club. The finance committee suggested $1,000. Several senators disagreed with this amount and felt it was too little. Hoffmann reminded the senators that each member of her club already pays upwards of $500 out of pocket at the beginning of the season and that the club asked for more funds in their budget than they were awarded. They also had to spend a majority of the out of pocket money to purchase new uniforms, which is why they are in this current situation.
Al-Shareffi reminded the senators that SA is there to help subsidize costs, not to pay full amounts. He told the senate that any amount helps in the long run. The senators discussed transferring funds out of one of the SA accounts to the organization fund in order to provide more money to Hoffmann and her team.
The $1,000 amendment was passed 9-3-5. A new amendment was proposed changing the amount to $2,500. This was failed 4-9-2. Finally, a new amendment was passed by a vote of 12-2-3, which gave the Oswego State Ice Effects $1,500. The bill was then passed 14-1-2.
The last bill that was presented would extend the deadline of signature retrieving for candidates running for SA president and vice president. There were a lack of candidates who submitted signatures, so in order to hold an election instead of searching for someone to run, they decided to extend the deadline. The bill was passed unanimously by general consent.
The SA Senate meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Lanigan 102 and all meetings are open to the public.
