On Wednesday, March 27, the Undergraduate Student Senate and Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) held a joint meeting in Doherty Hall. The two bodies usually hold one joint meeting to approve the results of the student elections and budgets from the activities fee, but that meeting was split this year into two. The first meeting discussed the results of the student body elections and the Activities Board (AB) budget.
Student body elections
In the first section of the meeting, Senate and GSA put the ratification of student body elections to a vote. Senate president and Elections Board chair Kyle Hynes shared the results of the elections, which includes the positions of director of organizations, direct of finance, and seats in the Undergraduate Student Senate. Those in favor of ratification argued that elections had run smoothly, with “no major irregularities.” Those opposed argued that the lack of candidates for the director of organizations position and the low voter turnout (less than five percent) should be considered irregularities.
The results of the elections were ratified with votes of 22-0-0 in the Senate and 49-5-0 in GSA. The director of organizations position remains unfilled at this time. Third-year Brandon Zhou was elected to the position of director of finance.
Activities Board budget
In the next section of the meeting, the Senate and GSA considered the 2024-25 budget for Activities Board (AB). The section began with a brief discussion from current director of finance Ellie Fu of what Activities Board is and why the Joint Funding Committee (JFC) funds them. In the Student Government Fiscal Policy, there are requirements which say that Student Government must allocate between 20 and 23 percent of the JFC main budget to AB. Fu also pointed out that most student organizations would be seeing a decrease in budget this year, as they have “less money and more organizations.”
Christy Chang and Jimmy Zhang, the AB president and finance chair, respectively, gave an overview of AB’s budget requests as well as how their budget is distributed throughout the organization’s four main committees. AB initially requested 22.7 percent of the JFC Main account projection, close to the maximum of 23 percent. One of the main points of discussion included AB’s honorariums, which total approximately $40,000. Another frequently discussed topic was the budget cuts that other organizations are undergoing.
The Senate first voted on a 22.7 percent budget, and the vote failed to pass with 6-13-2. The Senate then voted on a 20 percent budget, which also failed to pass with 9-9- 1. They also voted on a 21 percent budget, which failed to pass the Senate with votes of 8-11-1. They then reconsidered the 20 percent budget, which passed in the Senate with votes of 13-6-1, but failed to pass in GSA with votes of 28-35-1. At this point, one GSA representative proposed that this issue should be settled with a game of rock paper scissors, which was rejected.
The Senate and GSA cast a final vote on a 20.5 percent budget, which passed with votes of 16- 2-2 in the Senate and 49-12-0 in GSA. It was not specified what line items in AB’s budget (which was originally planned using the 23 percent figure) should be cut or reduced.
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