Two of eight club funding bills and one resolution were passed at this week’s ASUI Senate meeting.
Bill F25-B10 for Tau Beta Pi, an honors society for engineering students, requested $345 for their club to purchase a club initiation kit and other funding to start fundraising events. This bill was sponsored by Sen. Binod Khadka.
“Currently we are borrowing our initiation kit from WSU, because our original initiation kit was ruined in a flood a few years ago,” said Madison Gilster, treasurer of Tau Beta Pi, during the open forum.
The bill was passed.
Bill F25-B09 was introduced during the last Senate meeting, giving $400 to the pre-veterinary club for suture kits. These kits will be reusable and will help pre-veterinary students practice their pre-medical skills before entering vet school. This bill was passed.
Resolution F25-R11, which makes a commitment to sustainability practices within ASUI events, was also passed. The resolution outlined improvements that ASUI can take to improve sustainability in events such as food purchasing and waste management. This resolution was created in partnership with the University of Idaho Department of Student Involvement and aligns with the university’s sustainability goals.
Bill F25-B12A for the Bangladesh Association of Student Scholars was introduced by Sen. Zac Knapp. The intent of the bill was to give $1,500 to the club to help reimburse the large cost of Bangladesh Night that was held in September.
Sen. Sofia Vakhrusheva raised questions about the need for the large amount of money, and what the money earned from ticket sales was going towards.
“Mr. Masum was supposed to be here tonight to give more information. I’m giving you guys the information that was given to me,” Knapp said.
This bill has been sent to the finance committee for further discussion.
After the meeting, ASUI President Seyi Arogundade said it is important for club representatives to attend the ASUI meeting in which their bill will be discussed.
“This is to allow for questioning during the discussion of the bill by the Senate, and to make sure that the bills are passed in a timely manner,” Arogundade said.
Bill F25-B13 for the UI chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America was also introduced by Knapp. This bill requests $750 to help one club member attend a national YDSA conference in Chicago on Feb. 2.
“The estimate for the whole weekend would be about $1,000 per person, including airfare, food, travel and a hotel. Ideally, we would book those as soon as possible to keep the rates low,” said Alexa Smith, treasurer of UI-YDSA.
During discussion of the bill, Sen. Izaak Krohn said he was hesitant to provide funding to a political action committee given that ASUI is seen as a bi-partisan organization.
Knapp said that he had spoken with Smith about this concern. Knapp said that ASUI could demonstrate plurality support by offering the same amount of funding to other political organizations on campus.
Sen. Preston Hardcastle asked the senators with seniority if there was any precedent regarding funding for politically based clubs.
“This is an entirely new process, and previously decisions like this would happen behind closed doors. We are not going to discriminate between one or the other, so think of this as non-partisan,” said ASUI Vice President Bryant Sitts.
This bill has been sent to the finance committee for further discussion.
Bill F25-B08 for the UI Pre-Law Society requested $500 for general club activities.
Sen. Andrea Leal said that Sen. Julissa McDowell was in charge of the bill but, in her absence, Leal was acting as sponsor and spokesperson.
Leal said she did not know about the intent, the reason for the funding amount or the number of students that were active in the society. This bill was postponed to the next available meeting due to a lack of communication.
Bill F25-B06 for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers was sponsored by Krohn. The bill requests $600 in funding to partially reimburse the three club representatives who attended a conference on Oct. 31.
“I think $200 per student would be unfair,” said Vakhrusheva. Other senators said that there was not enough accountability with funding and decided to postpone the bill to ASUI’s next meeting.
ASUI will not be meeting next week, but will reconvene on Nov. 19.
ASUI meets at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the Clearwater-Whitewater room in the ISUB. Meetings are open to the public.
Josie Adjanohoun can be reached at [email protected].