Big topics were discussed at last night’s meeting, though the future the Grove Caffe was a huge source of contention in particular, a question that was not satisfactorily put to rest despite some three hours of discussion.
The council perused through other legislation, including a Resolution Against the Usage of Registration Fees to Offset State Budget Deficiencies, which was passed unanimously after making minor adjustments to its language.
Associate Vice President of Programming Garrett Berg modeled one of the eight attractive Sun God T-shirt designs and told the council that Sun God merchandise would be on sale next Monday. This year’s Sun God line includes the aforementioned T-shirts, booty shorts and sustainable water bottles ‘mdash; which goes along with the green-oriented Bring Your Own Bottle campaign. ‘
He added that this year the Programming Office and Alumni Association have teamed up to offer discounted tickets for alumni for the first time: $5 off for general alumni, $10 off for Alumni Association members and $15 off for Lifetime member alumni.
Berg also gleefully announced that Chilean actor and comedian Horatio Sanz would headline the comedy act for the festival.
John Condello, the A.S. representative from the nonaffiliate speech policy committee, gave his two cents on the current draft of the policy, which he regards as extremely restrictive. He expressed his disdain for free speech zones and recommended that the A.S. Council not let the policy pass as it currently stands.
The next two and a half hours or so were spent discussing the fate of the Grove Caffe. Grove manager Thomas Frank actively and passionately inserted himself into the discourse to defend the cafe against the flurry of attacks made against its current financil situation and business model.
John Hughes, the business officer of Student Life, offered some background on the failing enterprise as well as critiques of the council.
‘A.S. beats the drum of ownership,’ Hughes said. ‘One of things in A.S. is that A.S. isn’t very good at it. We don’t own things very well.’
A travel funding request from the Koala for $400 to attend Second United Comedy Knowledge Organizational Field Forum (S.U.C.K.O.F.F.) was questioned since the event can be found nowhere online.
Vice President of External Affairs Lisa Chen was so infuriated by the discussion that she passionately stomped out of the forum, banging the side door as she exited before quietly returning to her seat 30 seconds later.
Other councilmembers found it silly to scrutinize the funding request when the finance committee had already approved the item, but the decision was nevertheless tabled for a week so that the council can investigate whether or not the event truly exists.
Finally, the council approved language for the Student Organization Funding Advisory Board to finally complete the new student organization funding process.