The Associated Students of the University of Arizona focused on where the remaining funds for UA clubs should go as the year winds to a close during its meeting on April 12.
The senators were engrossed by a funding request by the UA Mock Trial team, with final approval for half the original amount coming after a long deliberation on the “info/action” item that lasted for almost the entirety of the meeting.
While Senator Enrico Trevisani is a member of the UA Mock Trial team and planned to abstain from the vote for funding the club, some members felt that the team’s request had been given an unfair fast track due to the relationship.
Trevisani explained that the fast track nature of the request occurred due to the UA Mock Trial team becoming eligible for the final competition in the past month.
Sending their application to the appropriations board for funding was contingent on being able to advance to the finals in Los Angeles, California.
Some in the senate felt that giving the Mock Trial team any funding might set a negative precedent if clubs can go to senate directly and not through the appropriate channels.
ASUA Club Resource Chief of Staff Alex Cordell stopped by the meeting to inform the senate that there were many other clubs eager to request funds after the appropriations board lifted a temporary hold on their application portal once funds had become available.
“I don’t really think it is fair to all of the other clubs and students who have reached out over the past month to request funding because they weren’t aware they could go get funding through senate,” Cordell said.
Senator Allison Childress expressed a similar sentiment as Cordell and felt that the best way to go about using up the remaining senate funds was by sending the money to the appropriations board.
“I would be in favor of giving the rest of our senate budget, rather than a scholarship, to appropriations and having them go down their list of clubs that have been tabled,” Childress said.
“I think that is probably the most fair way to allocate the rest of the funding,” she added.
After dissenting opinions had been expressed, Senator Trent Waller then made a motion to fund the team in the amount of $600, but Senator Kincaid Rabb objected to the motion to continue discussion on the matter.
Rabb’s objection passed with a vote of 9-3-1
The senate then tabled the discussion for later in the meeting.
A presentation was then heard from Bear Down Camp representatives who expressed a request for $500-$1000 for polo shirts, which will be voted on in next week’s meeting.
Bylaws were again discussed, but a misstep in the formal procedure kept the senate from continuing talks until next week as well.
Upon returning to the Mock Trial funding talks, a motion put forward and its subsequent objection continued to confuse the senate even further.
However, with the objection failing and the funding measure put to a vote, the senate awarded the UA Mock Trial team $300 after a 7-4-2 vote.
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