Spring Break
Senate votes against Senate Money Resolution bylaw change
by Miranda Neubauer
Senior Writer
News | 3/31/09
Posted online at 7:21 AM EST on 3/31/09
The Senate voted against a bylaw change that would allow Senate Money Resolutions to be granted to projects that benefit the student body as a whole instead of just to Student Union government projects after some original supporters of the amendment changed their minds at last Sunday's Senate meeting, several attendees said.
Senators for the Class of 2011 Alex Melman and Lev Hirschhorn, Senator for the Class of 2010 Amanda Hecker, North Quad Senator Alex Norris '11 and Ridgewood Quad Senator Aaron Mitchell Finegold '09 had proposed the bylaw last week.
The Union Judiciary originally ruled March 11 that a Senate Money Resolution of $900 toward an event with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers and former Black Panther member Robert King violated a Student Union bylaw that stated that all Senate Money Resolutions must go toward Student Union government projects.
The decision stated that to be Union projects, substantial Student Union involvement in the planning of the event is necessary, which the UJ ruled was not the case for the Ayers and King event.
At the beginning of the Union debate on whether to pass the amendment last Sunday, Melman and Hirschhorn stated that the Senate could serve as another funding source when the Finance Board was not able to fund due to insufficient funds.
Supporters of the bylaw change also pointed out that the Senate was spending a large percentage of its discretionary fund of $9221.66 for the semester on free food and T-shirts for events such as the Midnight Buffet rather than on more worthwhile events.
However, in an interview with the Justice, Melman, who was also an event planner for the Ayers and King visits, said that the opposing arguments had convinced him to change his mind.
"There was something to the idea that we don't want to get bogged down in really long debates and we don't want to become an organization that wastes its time giving out money. … We want to be an organization that spends its time doing advocacy," he said afterward.
Senators for the Class of 2011 Alex Melman and Lev Hirschhorn, Senator for the Class of 2010 Amanda Hecker, North Quad Senator Alex Norris '11 and Ridgewood Quad Senator Aaron Mitchell Finegold '09 had proposed the bylaw last week.
The Union Judiciary originally ruled March 11 that a Senate Money Resolution of $900 toward an event with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers and former Black Panther member Robert King violated a Student Union bylaw that stated that all Senate Money Resolutions must go toward Student Union government projects.
The decision stated that to be Union projects, substantial Student Union involvement in the planning of the event is necessary, which the UJ ruled was not the case for the Ayers and King event.
At the beginning of the Union debate on whether to pass the amendment last Sunday, Melman and Hirschhorn stated that the Senate could serve as another funding source when the Finance Board was not able to fund due to insufficient funds.
Supporters of the bylaw change also pointed out that the Senate was spending a large percentage of its discretionary fund of $9221.66 for the semester on free food and T-shirts for events such as the Midnight Buffet rather than on more worthwhile events.
However, in an interview with the Justice, Melman, who was also an event planner for the Ayers and King visits, said that the opposing arguments had convinced him to change his mind.
"There was something to the idea that we don't want to get bogged down in really long debates and we don't want to become an organization that wastes its time giving out money. … We want to be an organization that spends its time doing advocacy," he said afterward.
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