The Associated Students of the University of Arizona senate spent almost 30 minutes Wednesday debating the clarity and price of a senate funds request for the Diamonds in the Sky fashion show, which is Sen. Stephen Wallace’s project.
After much discussion, Wallace moved to table the senate funds request for the next meeting.
Wallace said that the event has received $14,512 in donations in the past two months. He requested approximately $7,578.
The senate voted five to four, with one abstention, to amend the amount of funds requested by Stephen Wallace to $6,958.74.
In favor of amending the funds to a lower amount were Sens. Eduardo Atjian, Sarah Bratt, James Brooks, Katherine Weingartner and Ryan Ruiz. Sen. Daniel Wallace abstained from voting, while all the other senators were in favor of Wallace’s original request.
“”This is a very large amount of money and I would encourage us to talk about this next week,”” Sen. Daniel Wallace said. “”You may be spending more than you’ll get back.””
Sen. Tyler Quillin also expressed concern with the event’s budget issues.
“”As a student on a budget, you might want to look into the Dollar Store,”” Quillin said. “”If everyone is eating Chipotle or Jimmy John’s as planned, you won’t need china to eat on. The Dollar Store might be a cheaper avenue.””
Sen. Brian Seastone, University of Arizona Police Department representative, was not in accordance with Quillin’s suggestion.
“”Because of the type of project this is, it’s not a Dollar Store kind of event,”” Seastone said. “”That’s not the way to go. It’s a classy event trying to raise $10,000. Sometimes you have to spend money to make it back.””
Sen. Hillary Davidson encouraged the senate to help with the event.
“”I urge you all to consider helping out with this, and maybe we can even incorporate the new senate-elects to get everyone involved,”” Davidson said.
Before the senate discussed the project, Stephen Wallace gave a presentation on Diamonds in the Sky, a project he has been working on in hopes of raising money for the Diamond Children’s Medical Center.
Stephen Wallace would like to make this an annual event.
“”I have multiple people working on the committee, and I’m a firm believer that experiences can teach you a lot in life, and we have a lot of business people working with us to give (the volunteers) more experience in business,”” Stephen Wallace said.
The event will take place on the rooftop of the Highland Garage and there will be four designers providing clothing for the fashion show.
Executive director of Spring Fling Lexy Keffeler gave a presentation about her event, which begins Thursday.
“”It’s going to be a lot of fun, and it attracts a diverse group of people,”” Keffeler said.
Brooks moved to approve the consent agenda, which allocated $784.20 of the requested $6,527.64.
Quillin discussed the Peer Mentorship bylaw.
“”We’re officially putting the program into ASUA bylaws, which is really exciting for me to have created a program that will hopefully live on for years to come. Thank you for your giggles, President (Chris) Nagata,”” Quillin said.