Numerous debates wracked the four-hour Student Senate meeting Wednesday night. Because the meeting concluded before all legislation could be considered, the Senate will hold an irregular session Monday afternoon. Revisions to the Student Government Election Code dominated Senate discussion. The Senate approved the revisions after a debate about campaign spending limits. The debate focused on whether tickets should be limited to spending $5,000 or $8,500. The Temporary Election Code Revision Committee left the amount unchanged at $8,500, but a later committee lowered it to $5,000. A floor amendment to return the spending limit to $8,500 failed. As a result, spending limits for individuals within a ticket were also reduced. This led to a reduction of spending limits for individual candidates as well. This semester’s code revision process began in September following a failed attempt this past summer. Despite the Senate’s debate, the committee’s revisions primarily concerned closing loopholes and clarifying ambiguities. Many bills to fund University-related student trips were scheduled to appear before the Senate, although there was only time to vote on two. The Senate allocated $1,200 to fund the Geography and Anthropology Society’s “Travelers’ Tales Speaker Series.” The program hosts free multimedia presentations by a variety of travelers – including astronauts and visitors to foreign lands. The Senate debated another group of bills to provide funding for a student trip to the Iowa presidential caucuses. A group of 19 students will travel in January with two professors to the event and cover the caucuses for The Huffington Post, a politically oriented news and opinion Web site. The bills, written by College of Arts and Science Sen. Drew Prestridge, sought to provide $160 to 15 of the traveling students to help defray their costs. Many senators opposed the bill because they said it was a misappropriate allocation of funds. Chris Sellers, University College Center for Freshman Year senator, said he feared the bill would set a dangerous precedent. Other senators argued in favor of the proposals. Some said the bills were not asking for much money, while others said the experience would benefit both the students and the University. The Senate voted on only one of the 15 bills, which passed. Because of a legislative technicality, however, the bill will be brought up again at Monday’s meeting with the remaining 14. Among other unconsidered legislation, two large appropriation bills did not even reach the floor. One sought to supply the University’s Center for Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership with $10,000. The other bill sought to allocate $10,000 to the University’s speech and debate team. All the legislation which was not considered will be discussed at Monday’s meeting.
—-Contact Daniel McBride at [email protected]