A motion to move the Stony Brook University men’s club lacrosse team to line budget status failed by a vote of 11-8-0 during the Undergraduate Student Government senate meeting on Thursday, Feb. 26.
Because the club was on line-budget status last year and was removed, its members asked to be reinstated from Special Services Council (SSC) budget status at the second-to-last SSC Committee meeting, according to Treasurer Kathryn Michaud. When the committee denied this, the team brought the issue to the senate on Thursday.
Several concerns regarding the club were brought to the senate’s attention, including outstanding balances which were due last spring. Additionally, the team only spent $150 of its $799.98 budget and failed to host an on-campus event in the fall semester,.
The Veteran Students Organization (VSO), the Stony Brook chapter of Student Veterans of America, asked for a $555 budget for when they host Veterans Awareness Week in the middle of April. Over the course of four days, the club would host a movie night, a veteran panel, a charity drive and a social. Vice President Dan Pilo said all of the events would be geared towards bringing together the campus community with its veterans.
“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re all fairly older than you guys. We have a different perspective on things,” Pilo said to the senate. “By having those conversations and seeing those different points of view, we can open up a much bigger dialogue.”
According to Senator Taylor Bouraad, VSO originally asked for a budget of $800, but the SSC Committee had cut it down to $555 at the committee meeting on Monday. Bouraad said that while the money the club was asking for was mainly for food, the committee made cuts in order to accommodate other SSC clubs during the semester. VSO had also asked for part of the $800 to be spent on awards. However, as per the SSC bylaws, SSC-funded clubs cannot be granted money for awards.
The motion to approve VSO’s budget passed by a vote of 19-0-0.
The senate also passed the Appropriations Act 3, which would allow for the transfer of unspent money from Special Services Council-funded clubs to be put back into the SSC budget to be given out to other clubs during the semester.
In President Garry Lachhar’s absence, Executive Vice President James Alrassi stepped down to present the SUNY Assembly Spring Conference roster to the senate. The conference, which takes place once a semester, will be hosted in Binghamton from April 10 to 12.
Alrassi said that 16 members of USG, including Executive Council members, senators and agency members, had sent in nominations to attend. Of the 14 who were selected, only seven will be able to attend the workshops during the conference.
Alrassi explained that Vice President of Academic Affairs Steven Adelson and Director of Events Management Tyrik Jiang’s nominations were not accepted due to prior circumstances.
When Lachhar arrived later, he said he would still accept nominations. The senate voted to table the vote so that those who were not approved or had not submitted a nomination yet could present their cases to the senate at
a later date.
The senate tabled the votes on the Club Table Tennis’ SSC budget and the Pre-Occupational Therapy Club’s SSC budget because representatives from both clubs did not attend the meeting.
