Student Association held its annual budget meeting Monday night and passed all proposals for next semester. Prior to the meeting, student groups met with the finance board to submit their budgets for approval.

The meeting ran differently than regular SA meetings. Each proposal was read and a representative from the organization was allowed to speak on whether or not the organization was satisfied with the amount recommended. Technical questioning came next, followed by a pro-con debate. After this, the assembly voted.

The meeting began with the presentation of 51 requests that were not funded. The reasoning for the lack of funding ranged from missed hearings to concerns with the budget requested. A motion was called to package these proposals so they could be passed together, rather than separately.

‘There is no way you’re going to get your money tonight,’ Parliamentarian Ryan Doyle said to audience members representing those student groups. ‘You’re going to have to appeal.’

The motion to package those proposals was approved and all were passed. Following this approval, Doyle stated $31,978.18 would remain to be allocated after appeals.

Following this, the assembly presented the list of remaining items one-by-one, starting with those requests that were partially funded.

Differing from previous years, all campus publications had at least one issue cut from their requests. Some publications, including The Student Voice, had more issues cut depending on how many are published annually.

When the allocation of $52,535.25 to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to fund its NAACP Week event was presented, several members of the audience questioned the amount of money given to the group. They stated the group had not been active for nearly five years.

The money NAACP requested was to bring actor Terrance Howard to campus. Howard is well known for his work in films such as 2004’s ‘Crash’ and 2005’s ‘Hustle & Flow.’

‘It’s alarming because it is such a large amount of money,’ said Tamekia Hosang, a senior African American studies major.

The proposed amount was passed and the assembly moved on to the next item on the list.

A motion was called by Director of Technology Menotti Minutillo to package the group of requests that were allocated in full.

‘They were all funded in full,’ said Chair of University Affairs Joy LaChelle Ingraham during pro-con debate on the motion. ‘There is no reason why we wouldn’t vote positively.’

Not all were in agreement with the packaging, however.

‘As an assembly, we’ve been asked to review them all separately,’ representative Yusuf Abdul-Qadir said.

Hosang addressed her concern with the motion.

‘You run into dangerous territory when you don’t evaluate everything individually,’ she said.

Chief of Staff Ryan Kelly motioned to suspend the rules and allow audience members to discuss any problems they had with items on the list before the motion to package was voted on by the assembly. Kelly’s motion was approved, and the floor was opened to audience members to speak.

Shavon Chambers, a senior television, radio and film and sociology major, said the La LUCHA publication, La Voz, was reduced to one issue instead of two. She questioned why the NAACP was funded for its event despite five years of inactivity, yet La Voz was not because of two years of inactivity.

‘(NAACP) isn’t even here to represent themselves,’ she said. ‘In previous years, when someone asked for a measly $3,000, it was a big deal.’

The merit of NAACP’s choice of speaker, Howard, was brought up and it was debated whether or not he fit NAACP’s mission.

‘It’s a little unfair that an organization that was inactive for five years gets more funding than those who are active,’ University Union Speakers director Adam Scharfberg said, after Ingraham motioned to yield her speaking time to him.

A motion was called to end the discussion, and the assembly voted on Minutillo’s motion to package the groups allocated in full.

The package was voted on and all were passed. Following this motion, the meeting was adjourned.

An appeals meeting will be held with SA on Dec. 10.

Published on December 4, 2006 at 12:00 pm