This week, the Student Senate reconsidered a funding motion from two weeks ago, but spent most of the meeting discussing a fall referendum and an amendment to Senate funding policy. Senate also unanimously passed the Freedom of Expression policy that Associate Vice President Michael Murphy presented the previous week. Elatedly, the Senate also recommends that the University administration form some kind of student Ombudsman committee to assist groups that host controversial speakers or presenters.

Ultimately, the funding for the Model UN Conference was granted, which previously failed because of its ¾ majority vote requirement. More on that is in the funded activities section below.

There will be a fall referendum on the Student Activities Fee before students leave for winter break. The referendum will work just like student government elections do in the spring, except there will only be two questions. The first will be whether to raise the Activities Fee beyond the automatic amount, which adjusts for inflation and amounts to roughly two dollars each semester. The second question will ask whether students support a smoke-free campus by 2010, which is the current policy recommendation from Health Services. The date of the referendum will be announced as soon as possible.

Senate failed the amendment to their fiscal policy, which would have prevented groups from asking for funding for the same event after it had failed once. The amendment would have added the following restriction: "Funds for events that failed in their most recent motion in the General Body, unless there has been a material change in the motion."

The amendment was proposed because some people thought it would be good for the Finance Committee to have a rule on this kind of anomaly, in order to keep their decisions consistent. Others pointed out that this has only ever happened once in about 1 to 2 years. Also, "material change" is an intentionally vague phrase, which meant that even with the policy in place, the Finance Chair would more or less decide what would and would not be reviewed, which is already the case now. Even without the amendment, the Finance Committee can still refuse a request that has already failed – they just don't have any written rules regulating it.

Academic Affairs:  Evan Osheroff
Business Affairs:  Jared Itkowitz
Campus Life:Kelly Duncan
Development and Communications:Justin Berka, Gerrit Betz (co-chairs)
Funding:  Joel Bergstein
Senate Chair:  Emily Leathers
senate.web.cmu.edu

Upcoming Meetings:

General Body: 5:00 p.m. Thursday, DH 2210
Executive Committee: 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, UC 318G
Business Affairs: 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, UC 320
Campus Life: 9:00 p.m. Monday, UC 320
Development and Communications: 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, UC 320
Finance: 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, UC 306

$200 to Donner Hall for Donner Emerging Leaders Service Group Charity Bracelet Sale

Date: December 10, 2006

Request: The Donner Emerging Leaders group is planning on purchasing 200 "Donner" themed  bracelets at $1 each. They will then be sold to the Donner residents for $3 each. The profit made from the bracelets will be used to buy Christmas gifts for confined patients in the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh based on a "wish list" that the Donner EL group received. This is a loan of $200, and will be returned to Student Senate.

Committee Decision: The Committee decided to loan the entire amount. The Committee was confident that the Donner EL group would sell at least 66 bracelets, which would mean that ultimately Senate would receive the loan back.

General Body: Passed with no opposition by a voice-vote.

$1,646 to International Relations Organization for McGill Model United Nations Conference (McMUNC)

Date: January 25-28, 2006

Request: The IRO is requesting additional funding to cover delegate fees and school registration fees for the McGill Conference as well as assistance with travel expenses.  McMUNC brings together 1,400 students from top universities around the world to create a world-class conference. IRO will be sending eight representatives to this conference

Committee Decision: The Committee decided to fund the school registration fee, the delegate fees, and half of the hotel cost of a total of $1,646. Student Senate encourages groups to pay for half of their travel and lodging cost. Also, IRA can pull funding from unused JFC allocation items for conferences they no longer attend.

General Body: Senate re-opened the motion that previously failed (a process in which someone who "won" the vote decides something went wrong, and chooses to reconsider it) to discuss it further.  This time, senators brought up the point that Senate gives athletic groups huge amounts of money, and that most of the campus rarely sees the effects of that money – and yet those are worth funding.  This time, the motion passed 21-3-2. 

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