By Kassondra Granata
SGA welcomed their 12 new senators at their last meeting, but their arrival was overshadowed by discussion over club funding and to clarify their debates.
Senator Jamie Canny presented a motion to have all club contingency requests be checked to the bylaws before being sent to the finance committee for more clarity and to eliminate unnecessary discussions prior to voting.
“We waste our time arguing if it fits our constitution and bylaws,” said Canny. “We shouldn’t have to worry about it, just evaluate it.”
Earlier in the meeting, representatives from the theatre department spoke to the Senate about their need for $22,200 for their musical in the spring.
The department has a rise in cast members from last year from nine to twenty-five and hope to hire a professional director from New York City.
Treasurer Nick Alaimo questioned where exactly the funds would be going to and asks the presenters if they could itemize the funds.
Senator Ryan Baldassario also asked for more specific breakdowns on how the money to be allocated (if permitted) would be spent.
“It cannot be SGA just paying for it every year,” said Senator Canny in opposition. “We need more sponsors or for them to fundraise.”
Senator Hannah Pancak made a motion to allocate $22,200 to the Theatre Department for the Musical.
“We should definitely support this due to the high rate of people who attend the event every year,” said Pancak. “It’s always sold out.”
Treasurer Nick Alaimo made a motion to postpone this debate indefinitely in order to obtain itemized costs and quotes from the theatre department.
“I’d like to have proof and ideas,” said Alaimo. “It’s a lot of money to be giving out without proof. I’m not in favor or against this motion just yet.”
After Alaimo set the motion, the Senate debated on whether or not they should wait on discussing allocating money to the Theatre Department.
Senator Ryan Sheehan was in agreement with Treasurer Alaimo and believed that it would be unfair to the new senators. “We have new senators and I feel that we should take a week or so in order to discuss this.”
Senator Jeremy Truex believed that to determine his decision he needed more information in front of him.
“I want to give them this money, but we should wait until we have all of the pieces in front of us,” said Truex.
All of these events reflect back to Senator Jamie Canny’s motion to review the club contingency requests according to the bylaws before bringing it to the finance committee.
“We shouldn’t have to wait a week to decide on a motion and keep postponing it because we do not know certain information,” Canny said.
After a few minutes of debate, Senator Hannah Pancak motioned to end the debate and the motion passed.
President Bergenn was not surprised of the outcome of the meeting.
“I think it went as expected,” said Bergenn. “We have 12 new people joining us, we all have to get used to it. I’ve never been in this position where we have half the group the people that we have added to the group, but it didn’t go necessarily worse or smoother.”
Bergenn was unclear as to what Senator Canny’s purpose was to making the motion she made.
“What I think is not understood is there is a reason I don’t turn anything away because I think that it won’t go in line with things,” said Bergenn. “The reason is because we elect 34 senators, not just a board of trustees. We can have a small board and make financial decisions and we do have a finance committee to make decisions. If we have people representing contingency, then they should have a say in it.”
