During the past two weeks, Student Senate has been hard at work closing out the 24th session of the governing student body.
On April 21, Sen. Michael Riebel proposed a separation of the Student Activity Fee to take out the 27 percent Board of Student Communications budget.
Journalism Sen. Rachel Kauffold read a letter from Kathleen Richardson, the director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, encouraging senators not to separate the BSC budget from the Student Activity Fee because it would require student publications to request for a raise in funding from Senate in the future.
Most senators were in consensus, arguing that the BSC budget is still student funds, and therefore should be regulated by Student Senate.
“Fundamentally it does not make sense to give up power we already have,” Vice President of Student Activities Greg Larson said.
The resolution passed with all senators voting in favor except Sen. Kauffold.
Senate also voted to pass a resolution presented at last week’s meeting to raise the Student Activity Fee $7. The raise, if approved by the Board of Trustees, would not go into effect until the 2012-2013 academic year.
In terms of allocations, Senate gave $3,225 during the meeting to send three delegates to the LeaderShape Institute Conference during the summer.
During the April 28, meeting Senate allocated $1,023.80 to the Drake Ultimate Frisbee Club to cover registration and transportation costs for the USA Ultimate Regional Tournament in Appleton, Wis., on April 30.
On April 21, Tom’s Campus club was recognized as a student organization. The organization aims to educate and do outreach to children in poverty throughout Africa, in part by donating TOMS brand footwear to children without shoes.
Sen. Amanda Laurent presented a bylaw change to make the Community Outreach Committee a permanent standing community on April 21. Senate voted on it during its April 28 meeting and made it an official committee. COC will help achieve Senate’s leadership goal next year to reach out to the community and be involved in community issues outside of Drake’s campus.
