The 17th A.S. Council meeting of the year began with a hostile and uneasy air, as tensions over Student-Run Television, the campuswide special election and recently released administrator e-mails spilled over into public input.

Thurgood Marshall College sophomore Eddie Herrera spoke regarding a resolution that would bestow the council’s support for his organization, Students United for Student Rights. The organization, according to a proposed resolution, “seeks to provide the [A.S.] Council with timely and constructive critiques of the council’s actions.” The item had been rejected in internal committee, which voted by an 8-1-1 vote to table it indefinitely, but it would later become a topic of heated debate on the council floor.

Never shying away from controversy, Earl Warren College senior Daniel Watts appeared with several e-mails from campus administrators regarding the SRTV scandal, published by the Guardian.

“These are just a few I found funny,” Watts said, before reading excerpts from e-mails by, among others, acting Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Life Gary R. Ratcliff and Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.

Things were relatively calm until the council began consideration of old business, when tempers flared over Herrera’s resolution and opposition to it by certain senators.

“I think there always needs to be an oversight, but I think it needs to be fair and balanced,” A.S. President Christopher Sweeten said.

Some senators said that, although they supported the idea on an ideological level, that they were not sure exactly how the organization would work, or what effect the resolution would ultimately have. Herrera, believing the council misunderstood the purpose of the organization, spoke in opposition to the points made by those senators.

“We’re not asking for authority to do certain things, only moral support,” he said.

However, the council ultimately ruled against the organization, voting to table the item indefinitely by a vote of 20-1-1 vote. John Muir College Freshman Senator Jonathan Hicken, the only vote in favor of the resolution, was visibly upset by the council’s decision.

“This is absolutely ridiculous,” Hicken said, leaving the room after the vote, never to return.

However, the most debated topic of the evening proved to be four funding requests from “subcommittees” of the Muslim Student Association, and whether or not the council should fund each one the usual $400 maximum to attend the same conference.

Although some senators on the finance committee argued that the similarities between the organizations were “fishy,” others said that the full funding should be allocated because the organizations were properly registered and followed the application instructions correctly.

Ultimately, all subcommittees were funded the full amount by a 15-6-1 vote, with a few senators claiming that they would be taking a closer look at finance committee bylaws in the upcoming weeks.