The Student Senate met again on the last Wednesday of Oct. for a Halloween-themed meeting. Funding requests, a budget amendment and elections changes were all discussed and acted upon during the nearly three hour meeting. 

The meeting began, as usual, with reports from the various directors of the executive branch. Most reports consisted of updates, expression of thanks for work on Homecoming and information about upcoming tabling events. Work on success week is ongoing and Parker Whaley, Chairperson of the Student Accessibility and Belonging Committee, discussed an upcoming Day of the Dead tabling event.

Following this, several funding requests were approved. The Black Student Union was approved for a relationship talk event, We Are F1rst was approved for national 1st generation week and three individuals requested grants to travel to different conferences and construct a pathway through a native plant garden on campus. 

The conversation then turned to a budget amendment proposed by the Coulter/Durst administration. The budget amendment was proposed after the Coulter/Durst administration received official enrollment numbers from the Washburn administration, as the number of students enrolled changes the amount of funds Washburn Student Government Association (WSGA) receives each year. The Coulter/Durst administration had originally crafted a budget for 5,000 students and Washburn’s official numbers are marked at 5,427 total students. 

Most of the funds were split amongst other student organizations, such as the Campus Activities Board and Washburn Student Media. The extra funds WSGA received were proposed to be placed in line items for payroll and student organization funding, along with other smaller amounts in different project line items. 

The Senate seemed content with most of the proposed changes, but several Senators took issue with the lack of a particular line item for the Special Events Director. Brennen Ross, chairperson of the Special Events Committee, was one of the first to point out the concern. Chairperson Ross stated that “initially there was $6,000 given for planning events…and it’s gone on this budget. When we were planning out how we were going to do our events, it was with $6,000 in mind.” 

Kate Coulter, president of WSGA, clarified that the original $6,000 was never approved by the Senate as general funds for Special Events. Rather, the $6,000 was placed in a line item for WU Fest.

“Now that WU Fest is over, we know that WU Fest only spent about $3,000. Since Special Events didn’t use the remaining $3,000, we decided to lower it, not knowing that you were planning on lowering it,” Coulter said.

The conversation then moved towards the remaining $3,000, rather than an initial $6,000 line item. Several Senators stated that they wanted a $3,000 line item added in discretionary funds for Special Events. Nick Lloyd, senator, asked the Special Events Committee people “what is the number the committee would like to request? $3,000? Let’s just move to change that then.”

Eventually, due to some technical difficulties, the actual budget document couldn’t be updated. As such, the Coulter/Durst administration pulled the amendment and stated that they’d make the changes to be passed through the Senate next week. 

After discussion on the amendment concluded, a governance change and an elections change were both up for action. The governance change, the Open Floor Act, clarified the process for submitting bills and resolutions for the body. There was some discussion and the legislation passed with some slight wording adjustments to make exceptions for funding requests. 

The second bill, the Election Policy Reformation Recommendation, required that all members of a campaign team for WSGA elections must be declared to the Chair of the Elections Committee and that those campaign team members may be held liable for violating campaign restrictions. This legislation passed as well, without major issues. 

Edited by Bidhya Sapkota and Arohi Rai