The Student Government Association granted a total of $10,000 in co-sponsorships to various clubs on campus at Monday night's meeting.
The first group was the Student Activities Board, who requested $2,500 to help pay for the 2009 Winter Ball, "Santa's Workshop."
SAB requested the money to help pay for decorations, however the Senate wanted more specifics, because they have strict rules as to what they are allowed to allocate funds for.
"It would have been nice if they had been more prepared… I would feel better off about where the money was going," Sen. Jon Chowansky said.
In light of the confusion, President Leo Jones said he wanted to make sure SAB was not receiving special treatment. A long debate ensued with almost all senators offering their opinion.
"As someone who's served on the finance committee we have rejected or cut a lot of peoples requests because of their failure to show what that money is going toward," Sen. Mike Urban said. "While I do think that SAB is a good organization, I don't think that they should be treated any differently."
Treasurer Sean Kennedy recommended the Senate grant SAB the full $2,500.
"SAB is a unique case for a club on campus because they have the ability to spend exorbitant amounts of money in a short amount of time" Kennedy said. "The winter ball is on a different scale. It's a ball that's not meant for a single club, it's meant for the entire university."
The Senate rejected the Treasurer's recommendation with a vote of 8-9. Freshman Sen. Michael Cruz was one of those to vote against the motion, however afterwards he said, "I would have liked to give them the full amount, but I saw no one else wanted to."
Sen. Sebastian Zar offered a motion for $2,000, which was approved with a vote of 15-2 with one abstention.
The Division of Volunteer Efforts requested money for the "Releasing the DOVEs" program where students take service trips to Haiti and El Salvador.
The money requested will help student participants to pay for a total of three trips; two trips to El Salvador, one in January and one in March, as well as one trip to Haiti in May.
This year DOVE requested a total of $8,000, the same amount they requested last year. The money will go towards expenses for 45 students involved on the trips.
However Parliamentarian Charli Strussman informed the Senate that because of a change in the bi-laws, SGA cannot award more than $8,000 for any single event. Because DOVE was requesting money for three separate trips the Senate decided they could award them the full amount if they voted on each trip individually.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly each time to grant DOVE funds for each trip.
Nicole Battaglia was one of many representing DOVE at Monday's meeting. When asked what she would have done if they did not get the requested funds she said, "I would have had to rely more on group fundraising and I probably would have paid more out of pocket."
SGA had a total of $7,600 remaining in co-sponsorships for the rest of the year.
Frank Taylor can be reached at frank.taylor@student.shu.edu.
