Student Senate update: Budgets and bylaws

At the Student Senate meeting on Oct. 27, Senate passed the It’s On Us Week of Action Allocation, the AFAB Bylaw Amendment, and the Bylaw Amendment.

The It’s On Us Week of Action Allocation, which was originally introductory only status but was later changed, was a motion to allocate $600 out of the Student Senate funding pool to buy food and hats for the It’s On Us Week of Action. It’s On Us is a national campaign that works to spread awareness of sexual assault on college campuses. UWRF adopted this campaign last fall, with sexual assault prevention being one Senate’s core initiatives this year.

Although the original budget for the Week of Action was $600 with the food costing $250 and 50 hats costing $350, an amendment was made to change the budget to $450, with $50 to be spent on food and $400 to be spent on hats. The excess funds from the Week of Action would go back into the Senate funding pool. The amendment was quickly passed, with the main motion being voted on and passed as well.

Next, the AFAB Bylaw Amendment was introduced. The motion called for a change in the Allocable Fee Appropriations Board’s bylaws concerning when student organizations can begin to request single-event funding for the spring semester. This amendment calls for single- event funding requests to begin at AFAB’s first meeting in December, instead of at any time as it was previously written. After some discussion about whether or not this kind of change to the bylaws was necessary, the AFAB Bylaw Amendment was passed.

Lastly, Senate discussed the Bylaw Amendment that called to change Senate’s bylaws concerning office hours for members of Senate. The amendment called for the Senate office to be staffed throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during weekdays. Changes to the bylaws also included not allowing Senate ad-hoc committees to last longer than a year. After some discussion, this amendment was voted on and passed.

All information in this update comes from the Oct. 27 Student Senate meeting, and select documents from the OrgSync Student Senate page. It’s very important for all students to stay informed on what is going on with Senate. They meet at 7 p.m. every Tuesday in the Willow River Room of the University Center, and the meeting agenda can be found 24 hours prior on the Senate page. To see the details of what was discussed last Tuesday, go on the Senate page, and read through this week’s minutes document.