On Wednesday, April 17, the Undergraduate Student Senate and the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) met in Tepper Simmons Auditorium for their annual Joint Ratification Meeting (JRM).
In previous years, the JRM has been a once-a-year meeting where the undergraduate and graduate student governments approve the results of the student elections and Activities Board (AB) budgets.
However, this year the meeting was split into two different meetings: one to approve elections and the AB budget (covered in the April 1 edition of The Tartan), and the other to rule on second-round appeals for organization budgets, the student government budget, and honorariums and alcohol line items, which are individual requests within a student organization’s budget. The second meeting also held a special election for the director of organizations (DoO) position.
The meeting opened with an overview of student government finances led by Ellie Fu, the director of finance. The main sentiment was that the Joint Funding Committee (JFC) should over-allocate to student organizations rather than allocate exactly the amount of money they have. This is due to rollover — money that goes back to the JFC. Most years, orgs do not spend all of the money allocated to them.
The year during COVID, decreased club activities led to approximately $500,000 rolling over, giving the JFC significantly more money to allocate to clubs. Last year, approximately $250,000 rolled over. Rollover in more typical years has historically been between $100,000 and $200,000.
Second round appeals
The first organization to make their appeal was Dancer’s Symposium, which requested an additional $3,500 for food to be used for social events and their semi-annual showcases. The JFC initially rejected this appeal because the limit for food funding is $675, and they reasoned that a dance organization should not need food at social events to build community. The motion to allocate the whole requested amount passed in the Senate 16-1-0 and in GSA 36-10-0.
The next org to request additional funding was Carnegie Mellon Racing (CMR). They requested an additional $5,100 to fund registration at a certain competition, vehicle rental for transportation to competitions, poster printing, and a new projector. The JFC rejected their initial appeal for two reasons.
First, CMR was approved for funding for a different competition, which the JFC said was a mistake — they meant to fund the competition that CMR was currently requesting funding for, and asked that CMR simply reallocate the already provided funds.
Second, they argued that CMR could purchase a projector for much less than the estimated cost that they requested. CMR explained that they needed a weatherproof, high-power projector to be used outside at competitions. The motion to allocate the full requested amount passed 15-2-0 in the Senate and 34-16-1 in GSA.
The Jewish Graduate Student Association (JGSA) next appealed for $4,750 for kosher ingredients for Shabbat dinner and lunch events, wine for Shabbat dinner and lunch events, and wine for Jewish holiday ceremonies. JGSA argued that food and wine are an extremely large part of Jewish culture, but the JFC argued that “it is intrinsically not the goal of JFC to be funding this large amount of food.”
The voting for this appeal had to be split into two separate votes, one for food and one for alcohol, because alcohol funding must be approved by a two-thirds majority. The motion to fund the entire requested allocation for food passed in the Senate 18-0-0, and the motion to fund the alcohol passed 10-0-0. In GSA, the motion for food passed 37-18-4, but the motion for alcohol failed 10-34-4.
Next, there was a motion to fund $1,000 for alcohol, which was reduced from the original $2,500. This motion passed in the Senate 18-1-0, but failed in GSA 25-17-5. Finally, there was a motion to fund $750 for alcohol. This motion passed in the Senate 17-1-0, but failed in GSA 26-18-3. The alcohol line item was funded at $0.
The final organization that presented an appeal was CMU Figure Skating, which requested $3,600 to fund competition registration fees. Figure Skating argued that they had to compete in three competitions to be able to qualify for Nationals, but JFC argued that Figure Skating was already one of the most highly funded clubs when looking at funding per member.
The initial motion to grant the full appeal failed in the Senate, 7-10-0. Next, there was a motion to fund $3,000, which passed in the Senate 16-3-0, and passed in GSA 25-24-0.
More JFC budget votes
The next section of the meeting was dedicated to approving honorariums and alcohol line items for student orgs, both of which must be approved by a two-thirds majority vote. After a brief overview of the proposed honorariums and alcohol line items, the motion to approve the whole slate passed 17-1-0 in the Senate and 47-1-0 in GSA.
The two groups also voted to approve the entire JFC budget, after appeals and special line items and the to approve the Student Government budget. These motions each passed by voice vote — in which members said yea or nay rather than raising their hands — in the Senate and in GSA. Finally, they voted to approve the slate of AB executive officers. This motion also passed by voice vote in both Senate and GSA.
Director of Organizations election
In the final section of the meeting, Senate and GSA held a special election for director of organizations. After hearing brief presentations and having short question and discussion times for each candidate, Amanawit Assefa was elected as the director of organizations for the 2024-2025 academic year.
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