Clubs receive funding approval

Story by Tim Webber

During an active Student Senate meeting on Thursday, two clubs received one-time funding approval, while a motion to create another organization was tabled with intention of being passed at the next meeting.

Senate first approved a request from the recently formed Fishing Club for equipment and transportation costs associated with the organization’s operations.

The organization provides fishing rods to new members, as well as live bait, lures, and transportation to local lakes and ponds, and requested the funding to subsidize those expenses.

The request for $459.65 was approved.

Josh Duden commended the organization as an example of how new clubs can grow and gain members quickly.

Despite the obstacles associated with starting a new organization, the club already has about 40 members.

The South Asian Student Association received $3,884 in funding to attend the St. Louis University spring show, which will be held this upcoming weekend.

Speaking on behalf of the South Asian Student Association, Sen. Ekta Haria said that while the organization usually travels to Iowa City for this event, it was disappointed with the diversity of performers in Iowa City last year.

Therefore, the organization decided to change its plans and travel to the show in St. Louis instead.

A benefit of the spring show is that it allows the student association to connect with different performers and potentially invite them to Drake University to perform during the organization’s popular Diwali Night.

Haria said she hopes traveling to St. Louis instead of Iowa City will allow the club to reach out to a wider group of performers.

Another organization, the Community Advisory Board, requested to become an official campus organization.

Juniors Aubrey Johnson and Sara Brock both spoke to Senate in support of the organization.

“We have three overarching goals: unite, support, and engage,” Johnson said. “We want to unite students and service organizations, support their efforts by assisting in volunteer recruitment and management and engage (them) by creating open dialogue for service and social issues.”

The organization would help students unaffiliated with service organizations find volunteer opportunities at Drake and in Des Moines.

It would also assist current service organizations by helping manage volunteer recruitment and by hosting roundtables and workshops designed to help increase both communication between the organizations and their service abilities.

However, multiple senators expressed concern about the wording of the proposal.

Because the proposal would make the Community Advisory Board a governing body over the service organizations, Senate decided that it would be best to gather more information on the proposal, specifically on whether other service organizations would be open to having a governing body.

The motion was tabled, but multiple senators suggested it would be passed in some form at a meeting in the near future.

Earlier in the meeting, Student Body President David Karaz outlined the process for the presidential search committee, tasked with finding a replacement for the retiring President David Maxwell.

Two students will be on the committee, both nominated by the Student Senate.

Karaz also introduced the six senators are running for executive positions: Adam Graves, Mark Reiter, Joey Gale, Josh Duden, Josh Schoenblatt, and Olivia O’Hea.