Senate to Establish Committee to Discuss Off-Campus Trips Policy

By Rachel O’Brien

At the Oct. 4 USG senate meeting, an informal, non-binding decision was made by the senate to create a committee to address the issue of the off-campus trips policy.

The Clubs Rules and Funding Committee has been established in hopes of speaking to students and clubs concerned with the policy that was in effect .for budgeting off-campus trips. As it previously stood, clubs’ off-campus trips were to be funded 85 percent by USG and the other 15 percent by the clubs themselves. Unhappy students presented their cases to the senate at the Sept. 27 meeting, leading President Joseph Antonelli to write an executive order freezing that policy and giving the senate the task of figuring out a way to budget off-campus trips.

“I feel we should listen to those clubs insofar as they respect USG,” Sen. Blake Wind said at the meeting.

Several other senators echoed his sentiments as the senate discussed the possibilities for reform after Executive Vice President Nathan Shapiro relaxed the meeting rules, as outlined by Robert’s Rules of Order, to allow the senators to discuss the matter in a less formal and more conversational manner.

“We should establish an ad hoc committee…and hear everyone out,” Sen. Chris Pitera said. “So they can help us make a decision on this policy.”

Members of primarily sports clubs attended the Sept. 27 meeting in large numbers to protest the policy, where members were consistently ruled out of order by Shapiro following rudely exchanged debate.

This, combined with the senate being unprepared to address the members’ concerns, demonstrated the need for a more constructive forum.

The senate could not come to a consensus on how to act on the policy. They decided the formation of the committee would allow them to be better organized and prepared to discuss the issue and come up with a reasonable method of determining budgeting for off-campus trips.

“With the committee we could send out a survey to the clubs,” to get a clearer idea of how to deal with the issue Elardo said.

Former senator Alexsandra Borodkin, filled in as a proxy for Sen. Kyle Grogan at the meeting, and was unhappy with what she saw as the idea that sports clubs should be focused on as the spokespeople for all clubs.

“Just because three sports clubs showed up doesn’t mean they speak for all the other clubs,” she said.

Vice President of Student Life Jonathan Hirst echoed her statement saying, “We need to talk to the clubs that don’t go off campus at all. If we fund more off-campus trips 100 percent, that’s something else we can’t fund on campus.”

There was some internal debate between the senators as some saw the 15 percent rule as needed to stabilize the budget and avoid going over budget by funding clubs too much. This view was opposed primarily by Sen. Pitera who didn’t see the immediate budget crisis that Shapiro, Hirst and other senators suggested would happen.

“The student activity fee is capped at $100, we’re at $94.25,” Hirst said, referring to state law. “Everyone called foul when we raised it. At some point in time we’re going to run out of money. The budgetary crisis is real, we had 32 new clubs last year, and it’s going to come to a point where we’re not going to be able to do it anymore.”

“If we’re not in a crisis now, why are we worrying about it now?” Pitera asked. “The numbers tell me we have a lot of money sitting in rollover, so there’s really no crisis yet.”

Shapiro responded, “We’re not in a crisis now and in part because of strict budgeting guidelines from last year but it’s also about being fair and equitable.”

Hirst explained that rollover monies cannot be counted on as USG doesn’t know how much is going to be left over from clubs’ budgets until all vouchers have been submitted and the year is over. It’s not money to count on for funding clubs, it may not be there at some point.

“It’s a finite budget,” Hirst said. “The 15 percent policy is to head off a potential budgetary crisis.”

The senators who are sitting on the committee include the Chairman Steve Elardo, and Sens. Alex Markow, Leo Kamenetskiy, Blake Wind, Nurmala Ramsuran, Chris Pitera, Steve Hauptman, and Suhas Sreeharshan.