It takes more than a new face, it seems, to alter the typical routines of student government. Vice President Internal Angela Fornero may have been absent from the meeting, but her temporary replacement Ashton Iranfar kept the traditions of stuffy parliamentary politics running smoothly. This change noted, things ran their usual course with disputes over funding, the role of the finance committee and council decorum taking center stage.
With no items of immediate consideration or special presentations on the agenda, controversy came in the form of several items carried over from last week’s meeting. These included two requests by A.S. Commissioner of Diversity Affairs Candice Arnwine for a total of $8,000 to fund Human Relations Awareness Week and an event featuring poet and author Maya Angelou. Some senators moved to pull the items from committee and discuss them on the senate floor, citing budget questions.
“I just looked over the budget, and there is $2,300 allocated already for diversity affairs,” Earl Warren College Sophomore Senator Daniel Palay said after making his motion for the item to be considered by the entire council. “I just want to know that the money that’s there already hasn’t been spent.”
Arnwine responded that she had not yet spent any of the diversity affairs allocation, but that she had submitted the requests because the entire year’s budget would be depleted by just one of the proposed events. She also stated that the $5,000 for the Angelou event would be spent on, among other things, publicity, a paid performer to open the speech and a potential dinner with Angelou prior to the event.
“I want to be able to hear what has been done and what will be done with the $2,300,” Thurgood Marshall College Senior Senator Kate Pillon said. “These are questions we need to ask and have answered before we give another $8,000 to diversity affairs.”
After some debate, A.S. President Christopher Sweeten responded that the exact figures of the diversity affairs budget were, at present, uncertain, because former Commissioner Eiko Arseniak had spent an undisclosed amount before her resignation early in the fall.
Subsequent motions to table the item for one week were voted down, with the council ultimately deciding to appropriate the funds for the events. Discussion then turned to the appropriateness of second-guessing finance recommendations, with some senators arguing that the point of a finance committee is to avoid lengthy discussions on the council floor and that recommendations should be given more weight. Other councilmembers, however, said that certain items in the past had not been adequately explained by the finance committee, and discussion is suitable and sometimes necessary.
“I think it’s completely appropriate for us to discuss these items,” John Muir College Council Chair Neil Spears said. “We are ultimately the custodians of the student activity fees and it’s our duty to manage it responsibility.”
