By Kassondra Granata

There have been few moments in the SGA this year that visual displeasure and disagreement between senators were prevelant. However, this past Wednesday was one of them.

Discussion of club funding led to debate, frustration and tension between members of the Student Government Association.

Senator Chris Kyle moved to allocate $4,031 to the Communications Club with the stipulation that they need to raise 10% of their funding.

“I believe that it’s within our bylaws to allocate this money for them,” said Kyle. “I want them to get the money to do what they have to do; I want to see what they could do with it.”

Many senators were in opposition towards Kyle’s motion, believing that the amount was too high along with the information presented by the club.

Treasurer Nick Alaimo, in disagreement  stated that the club was being penalized because they did not come back for contingency for they didn’t attach any extra information to their base budget forms.

Senator Jamie Canny believed that the amount that Senator Kyle moved was too costly due to the amount of members to the club.

“It’s just way too much money to give to the club, there aren’t enough members yet.” said Canny. “Even if they got six against the three they definitely have, it’s still too much money.”

Senator Shelby Ditello was in favor towards the motion regardless to the fact that they were being penalized for the lack of information with their base budget.

“We should at least be considering it even though they didn’t provide information last time.” says Ditello.

Senator Molly McLaughlin was on the fence towards Kyle’s motion.

“I think that this is a very large amount to be allocating to any club, based on the budget that we have for such a small club working to be built,” said McLaughlin. “I’m not in complete opposition; I just believe that it is too much money.”

Treasurer Nick Alaimo suggested the motion to be put on the table and closed the debate. At that point, Senator Chris Kyle had left the meeting and the motion was put to vote and failed.

Although the last meeting has shown much tension and anger between the Senate, President Bergenn has strong optimism in regards to delegation in club funding.

“What seems like tension and frustration is actually the Senate working towards some arduous goals, and it’s a necessary and beneficial process.” Said Bergenn in an e-mail.

The senate has had problems in the past and currently when it comes to interpreting bylaws which leaves conflict to those who interpret the bylaws in a specific way.

Bergenn sees conflict as a positive, stating that it will help the senate grow as a whole.

“I feel strongly that, even though it seems that not much is getting done, getting everyone on the same page is beneficial in the long run, for both the Senate and the Clubs in the funding process.”

Acknowledging that, Bergenn hopes that the Senate can look past their differences and work to fix the problem.

“What senators need to understand is that just because someone expresses a view point opposing theirs, it doesn’t make opposing ideas any less valid,” said Bergenn. “This is a problem that exists in all forms and groups, from our SGA Senate to our US Congress. There’s nothing wrong with it, but we need to reach a middle ground so we can begin to move forward and bring about positive change.”

Bergenn hopes that the efforts towards making SGA a stable working group and hopes that this process will produce mutually desirable guidelines for their funding process.

“Funding clubs is the biggest thing our group does, but it’s not the most important. We have to also be able to represent the students in a variety of other ways,” finishes Bergenn. “We need to be a group students can trust to turn to when they need help with student life on campus.”

“I hope people don’t interpret this as a lack of capacity to do that, but only as the arduous process that it is.”