Because key student senators were
late for a Monroe Park Student Government
Association meeting Monday,
senate budget approvals for four student
organizations were barely approved
Wednesday.
“Basically the chairperson and the
clerk of the senate were not there, so the
meeting could technically not happen,”
Sen. Stephen Latimer said. “We motioned
to adjourn.”
But Erin Joseph, chairwoman of the
senate’s appropriations committee, made
a last-minute decision Wednesday to
submit the budget requests to the executive
branch for approval. This decision
ensured the approval process for the
organizations’ budgets will continue
without delay.
“I went ahead and made the decision
not to penalize the organizations,” Joseph
said. “It’s not the way it should have
happened.”
Emeka Eni, chairman of the student
senate, said he was only three minutes
late for the meeting. Eni, the senate
clerk and the senate vice-chair were
late because of unusual circumstances,
including printing issues and car trouble,
he said.
“It won’t happen again,” Eni said.
Eni said student organizations would
not be affected by the prematurely
adjourned meeting.
But Learn said Monday’s failed meeting
is just the latest in a series of student
government mismanagements.
“It‘s part of a pattern. We have a
situation now where basically for the
past couple years, the legislative branch
has been withering and becoming basically
apathetic and dysfunctional, and
in the wake of that, the executive has
been asserting itself more aggressively,”
Learn said. “It’s an urgent problem that
the student body senate is breaking
down.”
According to the SGA Web site, the
SGA’s Student Senate Appropriations
Committee allocates a portion of the
student activity fee to various student
organizations on campus. For the 2006-
2007 school year, the SGA appropriated
$500,000.
Normally, the senate appropriations
committee approves student organization
budgets at its Friday meeting, before
referring them to the general student
senate for approval, Joseph said. After
the student senate’s approval, the budgets
are submitted to the executive branch for
approval, she said.
Although in the past, the general
senate approved the budgets during its
Monday meetings, this year, the senate
has adopted a new budget-approval policy
of “tacit consent.” Tacit consent means
senators can object to budget requests,
Learn said, but if they choose not to
object, the budgets will be automatically
approved.
When the meeting was adjourned
prematurely Monday, Joseph said, she
legally had the right to sign off on the
budgets. The decision was difficult, she
said, because she was unsure about
whether she should send the budgets
for executive approval if the meeting
was not held.
Had Joseph decided to wait, fund
distribution to the Golf Club, Network
of Spiritual Progressives, the Student
Education Association and Delta Sigma Pi
might have been delayed, Learn said.
Jessica Lee, Monroe Park student
body president, said she did not attend
Monday’s meeting because she was
sick.
“The reason it was cancelled, from
my understanding, was just a lack of
professionalism,” Lee said.
At last week’s meeting, Lee said, she
noticed similar disorganization.
“We didn’t have the appropriate
counts. There was no agenda. There
was no documentation about who we
were there for, whether funding was
on the table,” Lee said. “I actually had
a meeting last week to see what we can
do to encourage professionalism.”
Because she has limited authority as
president, Lee said, she can only diplomatically
encourage the senate to be more
organized. There is a clear separation of
powers between the senate, judicial and
executive branches of student government,
she said.
“I can’t step in and do it for them,”
Lee said.