Spring Break
Two funds, two purposes
by Hillel Buechler
Columnist
Columnists | 3/10/09
Posted online at 12:34 AM EST on 3/10/09
And the fact that our senators repeatedly disregarded a certain clause in the Student Union bylaws didn't make it any more constitutional. I hope the Union Judiciary realizes this when it makes its decision regarding Senator for the Class of 2009 Eric Alterman's complaint against Senators for the Class of 2011 Lev Hirschhorn and Alex Melman.
But now it's up to our senators to maintain that principle as they consider what to do next.
The main issue with the UJ case lay with the interpretation of a clause in Article IX, Section 1 of the Union bylaws: "All Senate Money Resolutions must be used for Student Union Government projects and/or operations."
Government projects. Government operations. Not club projects, and not club operations.
Two chartered clubs, Democracy for America and Students for a Democratic Society, requested funds through the Finance Board for Bill Ayers and Robert King to come speak. If requesting money through F-Board doesn't imply that something is a club event, then I don't know what possibly could. Requesting additional money from the Senate discretionary fund through a Senate money resolution for this event wasn't merely double dipping: It was unconstitutional.
But the overall problem was in no way limited to the latest student money resolution from the Senate. Don't blame only Hirschhorn and Melman or even the eight other senators who voted for the resolution. Most of the Senate has been guilty of such activity at some point.
The text of the court petition filed by Alterman for this current case even acknowledged that "The Senate has already passed money resolutions this year to support non-government projects."
Alterman himself has even voted for a sketchy student money resolution. In the Oct. 12, 2008 Senate meeting, the 11 senators present that day, including Alterman, unanimously voted to support another nonstudent cause, the Prospect Hill Terrace community center.
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