By Farris Willingham, Senior Staff Writer
Student senators failed a bill this week that would have reestablished the allocation process for Student Bar Association.
Wording in Student Government Association’s bylaws affected the amount of funding awarded to SBA this year, Sen. Caitlin Irwin (law) said. As a result, the law association received about $30,000 less than in past academic years.
The reduction will prevent law students from networking and participating in conferences, trial teams and community events, Irwin said.
“It will basically crush the law school’s ability to have the organizations function alone,” she said. “We’re going to lose membership.”
The cut stemmed from a strict interpretation of the bylaws, which read that the association would receive 80 percent of law students’ contribution to Senate’s budget, Irwin said.
Sens. Irwin and Joseph Pierce (law/graduate) presented Senate Bill 015 on Nov. 13, proposing an amendment to SGA’s bylaws.
Approval would have changed wording in the document from “Student Senate” to “Student Government Association,” Irwin said.
Members of the 2008 SGA administration altered the bylaws and changed the organization’s name, but failed to reflect all of the changes in the governing documents, she said.
The law association continued to receive funds, despite wording in the bylaws, Irwin said.
Senators voted by secret ballot Nov. 13. The bill failed 12-6.
In the past, administrators who were part of the university budgeting process applied the formula to SGA instead of SS, said Dr. Rick Hall, vice president for student affairs.
“They did it the way it used to be on the whole budget instead of just on the Senate budget, which is not their prerogative,” he said. “That means ‘Big Brother’ is taking over the SGA’s rules and regulations and saying, ‘you might have made that rule, but that’s not what you really meant.’
“It’s not the university’s place, in my opinion, to tell the students what they meant in their governing documents.”
The responsibility to decide allocation to the SBA this year came to Hall, who previously had not been part of the process, he said.
“The university is not going to override the documents that you all voted on because that then makes mockery of student government,” Hall said.
Student government leaders never were given a chance to be accountable for their mistake, he said.
“We made a mistake according to the documents,” Hall said. “We’re not going to continue to fund it in spite of what the document says. If you want to change the funding rules, change them.”
Sen. Nora Gnabasik (sophomore-at-large) agreed that senators should be accountable for their actions.
“This is SGA’s mistake,” she said. “The law school is making an effort to work with us.”
SGA members should create an effective, permanent solution, SGA President Robin Ladd said.
“Why are we rushing this amendment when it’s been such a contentious issue,” she said, adding that she wanted senators to discuss the problem further before deciding.
Eighteen senators who were able to vote were present at the meeting, of which two-thirds disagreed with SB 015.
Senators didn’t understand the legislation, even though the law representatives provided them with several answers, said Jenna Surmacz, third-year law.
“This amendment is trying to fix what was messed up this year,” she said. “I’m really upset because the undergrads are trying to make these arguments about money and allocation when they actually don’t understand what they’re even really voting on.”
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