Student Senate will vote on a bill to support a $150,000 increase to SAC funding for the 2017-18 academic year at its Wednesday meeting.
As enrollment, tuition and the number of student organizations on campus have increased, SAC funding has remained the same for the past 15 years, making it a disproportionate amount, Student Senate President Hannah Clouser said.
SAC, the Senate Appropriations Commission, is a subdivision of senate responsible for allocating funds from the student general fund for campus organizations.
Having SAC funding remain the same has led to insufficient funds for certain events within student organizations, SAC Commissioner Ellenore Holbrook said.
“If this bill passes and the funding increase takes place, we can up our funding caps on student organizations,” Holbrook said. “Student organizations have been to (fewer) conferences because they tend to be expensive. We can send students to conferences across the United States, and increase funding for student organizations overall.”
Holbrook, Clouser, Senate Treasurer Steve Lichtenfels and SAC-Vice Commissioner Haley Klier all said the bill is likely to pass. The greater concern, Holbrook said, is how administrators and higher-level officials at the university will proceed when they receive senate’s request.
“This bill has the potential to impact a lot of student organizations if it’s taken seriously within the university,” Clouser said.
Lichtenfels said that if the funding increase is not initiated for the 2017-18 school year, it could be implemented the year after.
“I’m happy with the work and research everyone in SAC did,” he said. “I think we have a pretty strong proposal.”
In addition to voting on the bill, senate will hear a presentation from Colleen Bendl and Greg Fialko from Human Resources. They will discuss the student worker hour increase from 20 hours to 25 hours per week, Clouser said.
Clouser said she is likely to address the button event that took place after last week’s senate meeting. Senate pinned notes to 500 buttons pledging to take action against discrimination on campus as part of the Cultural Awareness Training for Students, or CATS, initiative.
“Students have been coming into the office to take buttons and take the Bobcat Pledge,” Clouser said. “We’ve been reaching out to organizations and seeing lots of really positive reactions.”
Clouser said the meeting will focus less on internal appointments and resolutions, and more on matters that will affect the entire student body.
“I think we’re doing a lot of external things at this meeting,” Clouser said. “These are great, positive initiatives taking place within student senate.”
