By Kassondra Granata
At last week’s meeting, the SGA allocated $5,000 to the dance team and discussed their role in student involvement for important events.
Senator Alex Kitchener, in favor of the motion moved by Senator Sky Morell, believed that the dance team deserved the money due to the clubs effort in raising money for their trip to Nationals in Florida. The Senate has been talking about allocating money to the dance team since September. The dance team is planning on participating in Nationals in the spring hosted by Disney World.
“The dance team has worked very hard for this trip,” said Kitchener. “I feel that we should give a little if they are giving a little.” Kitchner was citing the fact that the dance team has fund raised about $9,000 for the trip.
Senator Jamie Canny believed that the amount was too much and was not comfortable in allocating the money to the club and hoped that the senate could look at this from a professional standpoint rather than emotionally.
“I believe that this is too much money to give them at this point,” Canny said. “We need to look at this from a business standpoint, not emotionally. I do not feel comfortable giving them money unless they state that they won’t use it for recreational purposes.”
Treasurer Nick Alaimo agreed with Canny and added that now is not the time to make such a decision for the dance club.
“We do not want to go over our contingency funds, we need to look it over,” said Alaimo. “Right now, it just doesn’t look feasible.”
Vice President Liz Braun was very passionate on allocating the money to the dance team, believing that they deserved it the most out of the other clubs.
“We have to make a decision now, are we going to give it to the dance club who deserves it or have a lot of money left over?” said Braun. “I think we need to stop thinking about who we gave money to in the past. This is the club I’ve seen put in the most effort. What other club can make it to nationals?”
Senator Molly McLaughlin then made a proposal to amend the motion that the money would not go towards park hopper passes or registration fees, just strictly airfare, which was passed.
“I think that airfare is one of the most important components of their request,” said McLaughlin. “Providing them with flight is a significant contribution to give to them.”
Senator Ryan Baldassario was frustrated with the debate and the fairness given to the clubs overall.
“If we are going to give them money, no matter what we give them, we need to decide today,” said Baldassario. He said that the Senate needs to stop disrespecting the dance team and that what the Senate is doing isn’t fair to them.
“This isn’t all of our money, it’s a sizable chunk, but it is needed,” said Baldassario. “I am not willing to give these people nothing.”
The Senate voted on allocating $5,000 to the dance team for airfare and it passed 24-7.
During open floor, a student addressed the Senate on the Gates lecture and the lack of students that attended the meeting.
“I noticed that not a lot of students attended,” said the student. “This lecture was a big deal.”
The student then questioned what SGA could do in order to increase the student involvement when it comes to big events on campus. The student was disapointed in the lack of student involvement
Senator Canny mentioned that the week off due to the storm was behind lack of students at the lecture and claimed that the lecture was “faculty based.”
Other senators believed that the lecture series was well advertised and students were accurately informed of the event taking place.
Senator Chris Marcelli believed that a good amount of students attended.
“There were definitely a good amount of students there,” said Marcelli. “I know Dr. Gates had small conversations with students beforehand.”
Baldassario agreed with Marcelli on the number of students that attended.
“I gave out a lot of tickets to this show to a lot of students,” said Baldassario, who works at the Student Center information desk. “A good amount of people knew abou,t it whether they went or not.”
Senator Shelby Dattilo spoke on her viewpoint towards SGA and their ability to promote student involvement.
“It comes down to student awareness on global issues and we can have a hand on changing the views that students have,” said Dattilo.
President Bergenn then addressed the senate and conveys his fascination with the “Occupy CCSU” event and other political actions.
“If you want to drive campus interest and involvement, you need to have these discussions,” said Bergenn. “We as students can help the drive.”
The senate did not resolve the issue of how they can contribute to increasing student involvement on campus before a senator motioned to adjourn the meeting.