SGA postpones dance clubs bill
The SGA postponed the presentation and overall vote of the Bhangra dance club bill that would bring nearly $3,000 to student dance clubs to pay for private practice spaces off campus on Monday, Oct. 7.
Sarah King
Contributing Writer
The SGA postponed the presentation and overall vote of the Bhangra dance club bill that would bring nearly $3,000 to student dance clubs to pay for private practice spaces off campus on Monday, Oct. 7.
The bill was sent to the appropriations and information technology committees last week, and did not receive the two-thirds majority vote to present the bill in front of the full Senate on Monday. The postponement was chalked up to “technical issues” in the details of the bill.
“I believe that this is a conversation that should and will continue because obviously students want the change,” said senator Bryan Cowles.
Many Bhangra dance team members attended the meeting in the hopes that their bill would be passed.
“It’s a little upsetting because, you know, it feels like this has been pushed off for way too long now,” said Harsimran Sodhi, captain of Bhangra VCU. “We were told that voting would be today and all I’ve really heard is negative attitudes toward this bill. We’d like to express ourselves a little bit more to the people voting on the bill because it seems like a lot of the people … don’t really know all that much about us.”
There are over 40 student-run dance organizations at VCU, they are not allocated a place on campus to practice if they need the space. The bill’s funding would enable dance clubs that had been denied practice space on campus to pay for private spaces elsewhere.
“I was the one who created the Funding for Off-Campus Facilities Bill and brought back awareness for practice spaces on campus for student organizations particularly dance organizations,” said SGA senator George Pottanat.
The senate will reconvene next week and may vote on the bill then.
“We, VCU, are in need of practice facilities due to the high number of VCU student organizations and lack of facilities spaces,” Pottanat said. “There are not current facilities available for practice spaces due to past attempts that have failed in gaining trust between building administrators, sponsors and groups.”
