Thursday, February 12, 2009
Student Senate failed a bill that would limit the amount of money Senate could allocate to student groups after nearly two hours of debate during last week’s meeting.
The bill came as a response to the over-allocation of funds within Senate during the fall semester. Its sponsors saw the bill as a step toward fiscal accountability, and its failing signified to them a lack of responsibility within Senate. Others saw the bill as hurried and ineffective.
Eric Foss, Overland Park third year law student and author of the bill, said he wrote the legislation because he noticed a continued trend of allocating more money to groups during the fall semester, leaving Senate, and consequently student groups, strapped for cash in the spring.
“I wanted to put funding caps in place so it didn’t matter when you came in; each group would be limited to a certain amount of money,” Foss said.
If the bill passed, it would have limited the amount of money student groups could receive from Senate. Events and speakers would have been eligible to receive as much as $6,000. For academic projects through groups such as the Experimental Balloon Society, Senate would have given the group 50 percent more than what the associated academic department was willing to provide, so long as the amount didn’t exceed $5,000.
Mason Heilman, Lawrence junior and student executive committee chairman, voted against the bill and said he didn’t think the bill had been given enough thought.
“If we’re going to put a spending cap in place it needs to be done with a lot of thought, a lot of people involved in the process and it needs to be done at the beginning of the academic year,” Heilman said. “This bill zoomed through committees and was only authored by one person.”
Supporters of the bill said it would take important measures to funnel students requesting large chunks of money through the line item allocation process that happens once a year. When students apply for this type of funding, the groups appear together at one time before the Senate so that the senators can get a bigger picture of which groups on campus need money. Foss said that when groups who knew they would be requesting large amounts of money didn’t go through line item, it could cause problems down the road.
“During line item and block allocation we have a set amount that we give to block groups and a set amount that we hold over for non-allocated, so when these groups don’t go through line item it catches us off guard,” Foss said.
This past semester, Jayhawk Motorsports and Black Student Union missed the line item allocation deadline and Senate still chose to fund the groups $10,085 and $10,000, respectively. Those funding bills accounted for a quarter of spending for the fall semester.
Koga Moffor, Black Student Union president and Overland Park senior, said a bill like the one proposed would motivate her group to go through line item funding.
Alex Porte, Great Falls, Va., senior and student body treasurer, said the bill would have helped prevent similar things from happening in the future.
“It was disappointing to me that the Senate failed it because I felt it was very hypocritical for Senate to have a two hour debate on that bill about fiscal responsibility and then no more than half an hour after that we passed a $2,000 funding bill,” Porte said.
Several senators expressed hope that something would come out of the discussion.
Michael Wade Smith, Goodland sophomore and deputy communications director, voted against the bill.
“I think a task force or some kind of committee needs to be formed that has more than four or five people working on it,” Smith said.
— —Edited by Heather Melanson
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Comments
Senate rejects funding bill
It's unfortunate that this bill was not voted on by roll-call. The student body has the right to know who votes for what bill.
Senate rejects funding bill
I think the key in this story (or this whole ordeal) is that the BSU president actually said that a bill like this would motivate their group to be more responsible in their requests for money.
Senate rejects funding bill
Also worth noting - the approx. 10 spelling and punctuation errors in the bill.
Senate rejects funding bill
“This bill zoomed through committees and was only authored by one person.” “I think a task force or some kind of committee needs to be formed that has more than four or five people working on it.”
I haven't read the bill. Might be a crap bill, with tons of errors and bad ideas.
But notice that your student leaders on exec board are concerned with.... ADDING MORE RED TAPE. It went through committees quickly, didn't have ten rubber stamp authors, and didn't come from a created committee that argued about it before Senate argued about it.
You can add amendments. You can alter a bill in the Senate. The change could be implemented next year to be fair for the remainder of the bill cycle. You just need to figure out your guidelines via some common sense. You're indecisive chickens, the lot of you-- you want nothing to happen in the Senate meeting that wasn't first decided in a closed-door United Students meeting, and that's a shame.
Senate rejects funding bill
hawks101-- Actually, I do know these people. I know who Mason Heilman is; I was on the committee that gave him his first seat. I know who Michael Wade Smith is; he has my old job and we've had a few conversations. I know Alex Porte, I had the pleasure of seeing him in his first campaign. I don't know this exact bill. I do know issues when I see them, because I was very good at it.
I have a life. I spend lots, and lots of time on it. But when I'm bored at work and I've finished reading the news out in the real world, I'm prone to popping over here and reading. I would like to move away from KU for awhile, but it'd be nice to know that more capable hands were in control. Oddly enough, I'm regularly contacted by current senators with questions, comments, and concerns, so I must not be entirely unwelcomed-- no matter how much I wish I could be okay with people pissing away student rights and fees. As any good campaigner would tell a senior they were encouraging to vote-- the things you bozo's do reflect on my degree.
And if you think I'm the only one who hasn't moved on, you're out of your mind. I get so many e-mails about this stuff from retired Student Senate people, your mind would explode. They're just more respectful than I am, and choose not to comment on your foolishness in public. Some might say that's less respectful, because I'd willingly say it to your face.
They sure love it when I do, though.
In short; disagree with my opinions, fine. But YOU don't know ME, so if you think you can sling anything personal and not directly related to the issues you are mistaken.
Senate rejects funding bill
OldGoldLegs,
From now on, every time you comment I am going to remind you that you haven't been in Student Senate in years; you don't know these people AND, by your own admission, don't know the issues.
I am also going to encourage you to get a life. Perhaps you should move away from KU for a little while. It would probably be healthy. You could talk to all of your other senate buddies, after all, they have all moved on.
Senate rejects funding bill
OldGoldLegs, you don't really know the current leaders. You may have met them, seen them across a room a couple of times, or even had a conversation with them, but it seems your opinion's of them are shaped by their opponents who are the one's contacting you... That's why your personal attacks on them are so weird. You don't know them, but seem to be so invested in them.
Maybe you should contact them, ya know, hear the other side. Then again, maybe it would still be best to move on...
Senate rejects funding bill
Last person I talked Senate with was a United Student who wanted to talk about the problems they saw in their party. They proceeded to confirm my every fear.
Also, there are five (count 'em, five) advertisements in the University Daily Kansan today for student groups. I haven't seen more than six all year. The people in charge are pissing away student fees, and they don't care about helping student groups. I know more than enough to judge them in their positions.
I'm not criticizing their taste or saying I wouldn't have a beer with them. They're just bad student senators, that's all.
They're always, always, always welcome to contact me and I will always give them my opinion and solutions. I've made that offer, and as I said, been taken up on it regularly. They've got my e-mail. I'm not hiding anything. I'm just adding to the conversation.
And whenever you're ready to go out for a drink and tell me who you are, I'll try to clear an evening for it.
Senate rejects funding bill
By "clear an evening for it," do you mean beg the wife to let you out of the house for an hour?
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