Senate Approves First Budget Requests of 2017-18 Year
Photo courtesy of Gettysburg College
By Miranda Feeley, Staff Writer
Monday’s Student Senate meeting was called to order with President Luke Frigon reiterating that all senators must serve on a Senate Committee. It was also emphasized that any student on campus can serve on a committee as either a member or a chair. The Sustainability Committee still needs a chair.
Several new Committee Chairs were announced. Sulemi Suarez and Candice Montenegro will co-chair the Diversity Committee, Anna Burns will chair the Public Relations Committee and Kate Helmstetter and Alex Xie will co-chair the Campus Life Advisory Committee. Anyone interested in serving on these committees can contact the chairs directly. Other committees include Academic Affairs chaired by Alexander Englesman, Budget Management chaired by Sarah Berkowitz, Career Liaison chaired by Katherine Cramer, Information Technology chaired by August Umholtz, Student Safety and Regulations chaired by Callie Fucarino and Senate Opinions chaired by Michael Mancuso.
Budgets were approved for the Jazz Appreciation Society, Biosphere, Quiz Bowl and Disciplemakers Christian Fellowship via the new system which requires club representatives and Senators to look over prepared budgets given preliminary approval.
It was stressed that $23,000 was spent from the rollover account last year. While this does not count as going “over budget” because the rollover account does still contain $36,000, the Senate cannot afford to depend on that budget again this year to fund club events.
Frigon then presented a short PowerPoint on national and international organizations that have contacted the Executive Board about becoming members of said organizations.
Netwoko is a Canadian organization that seeks to establish networking between student-led groups and has five other members in the United States.
The American Student Government Association is a professional association that supports college-level student governments with research, free consultations and conventions that provide networking opportunities.
Caitlin Lindsay, the assistant director of Greek Life and Office of Student Activities, provided insight on ASGA from her time at University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point Campus. She cited the benefits of the group, explaining that “The problems that Gettysburg faces are faced by other colleges, too, and there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.”
The final organization was the National Association of Campus Activities, which was described as a Campus Activities Board on a national level, providing programming and event help as well as its own conferences. No hard data on the cost of joining these organizations was presented; this was an introduction to the idea.
