The Associated Students of the University of Arizona, the university’s undergraduate governing body, discussed their high rate of appropriations funding and clarified their Bobcats Senior Honorary funding at their senate meeting Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Appropriations
The ASUA Appropriations Board received over $9,900 in funding requests, which the Senate approved.
Executive Vice President Bennett Adamson noted that appropriations has already approved $99,000 worth of funding.
“[Appropriations], over the course of the year, has a budget of $225,000 to allocate,” Adamson said.
He said if appropriations continues to allocate money at their current rate, they will run out of funding before the end of the school year.
Adamson noted that funding requests have a trend of slowing down in the spring semester, but if funding does run out, the Senate may be required to adjust ASUA bylaws.
“Right now, they grant what they can … We might need to either empower the appropriations board directors to be able to have a little bit more decision power in their own right or we might just need to change the bylaws to place some further limitations on what we fund because obviously, it’s not sustainable to run out of money so early in the year,” Adamson said.
RELATED: ASUA Senate discusses Colleges of Letters, Arts and Sciences and funding (ASUA Notebook 10/16/2019)
Bobcats Funding
After ASUA approved funding for the Bobcats for Homecoming activities, At-large Senator Rocque Perez noted the honorary recently traveled to the University of Southern California to attend an Alumni Association event.
Administrative Vice President Kate Rosenstengel clarified that the Alumni Association allocated funding for travel specifically because the Bobcats worked for alumni at that event.
“That was money earmarked specifically for travel, because they needed us at specific times, which is why we flew instead of driving,” Rosenstengel said.
She also noted that while the travel funding was externally allocated, the Bobcats approached ASUA for funding because their budget for Homecoming was cut.
Student Health Advocacy Committee
SHAC, a program within ASUA, presented some of its goals for the upcoming year.
Its main initiative is focusing on vaping on campus.
Rosenstengel encouraged Senate to work with SHAC with health-based initiatives or ideas they have in the future.
“An easy way to support what SHAC is doing is to write a resolution about vaping on campus or mental health … so that’s a good way to work with them on your issues,” Rosenstengel said.
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