Student Senate 4/3

The budget for recognized student organizations for the fiscal year of 2019-2020 was approved during the University of Rhode Island’s general meeting on April 3.

The bill calling for the approval of the budget was passed unanimously. Some funds for different recognized student organizations, including Student Senate, were adjusted within the budget. The Electronic Music Association requested $1,000 more for their festival to meet their original request of $2,000 which was approved by the Senate.

Senator Annabel Cimbal motioned to add the College Democrats to the recognized student organizations budget sheet, who originally were not included in the budget, and requested $300 be added to their account for recruitment. Finance Committee Chair Zachary Taylor explained that the group was not included on the budget because they failed to apply to the Finance Committee for a budget.

The president of College Democrats, Andy Boardman, said that this was “some kind of technical error.” This motion was passed.

Senator Joseph Lachance motioned to decrease the allocation of $1,000 to First Night down to $200, which was prompted by a comment by Director of Communications Nicolette St. Amand. This motion was passed.

“We never are more important than any other student orgs and shouldn’t be given more resources,” said Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jennifer Kohl as other student organizations were allocated $25 for First Night.

The organization Students for Sustainable Drug Policy (SSDP) was struck from the budget as the Student Organization Advisory Review Committee claimed it did not receive any emails from the organization after a request for recognition from SOARC. This motion was passed.

“I don’t support recognizing an organization that’s not doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” said SOARC Chair Austyn Ramsay.

The $200 that was originally allocated by the Finance Committee to SSDP, was reallocated to the Senate’s general contingency line after a motion by Taylor to do so passed.

The Senate’s line for cosponsorship was increased to $10,000 and their line for office supplies was increased to $1,000 after a motion by Taylor. Both of these motions passed.

The bill calling to replace the Senate’s bylaws was passed unanimously. These bylaws were not completely finished and some amendments were made to the first several articles of the bylaws, but they can be amended in the future.

This passage means that the new Constitution, which the Senate already approved, will go into effect for next term. Translational bylaws will be written to help the Senate transition from the old bylaws and constitution to the new ones.

Senator Mitchell Asante motioned to add under office hours that senators should attend an hour of a student organization of which a senator is not a part of. This was approved with unanimous consent. Kohl said that student attending other student organization meetings would “encourage us as senators to be more transparent.”

Senator Jay Rumas motioned to make this section of the bylaws read to make this read that senators would spend two office hours at other student organizations’ meetings which were also passed.

The bill calling for a $9,620 programming contingency grant for Uhuru Sasa for their annual fashion show was passed.

All elected members of Senate were sworn in at the end of the meeting, including new President Nick Marotta and Vice President Amanda Marino.

A special meeting was held directly after the general Senate meeting for nominations of executive committee members, new committee chairs and the panel to elect judges.

Ryan McWeeney was nominated by Ryan Menard to be the moderator of the Senate. Marotta nominated Kayleigh Goyette, Johnny Morabito, Joseph Lachance and Layla Cox as his cabinet members. Elections of these positions will be held during the next meeting.