Associated Students (A.S.) amended the funding request for the Black Student Union (BSU) Tuesday after budget concerns decreased clubs and organization funding last week.
Vahan Khodanian, director of finance, addressed the Senate members with his reason to carefully hear the amendment requests from clubs and organization despite budget concerns stemming from the previous week.
During the last meeting, Khodanian said clubs and organizations would get more funding closer to the end of the year due to additional funding from student fees not available to A.S. at that time.
Amanda Flavin, senator of business and economics I, added senators should pass the amendment of $500 because more funding may be available in the next few days.
“BSU was very proactive in coming to financial committee meetings,” Flavin said. “It would be proper to allocate the additional funding since we may have more money in the next few days.”
“Be careful not to penalize clubs and organizations too much because of ‘unusual timing,’” Khodanian said. “There will be some things on the agenda next week that will ease your worry.”
During the open forum, four representatives spoke on behalf of BSU and ask the Senate to amend a funding request of $1,000 to $1,500 for their Pan African Studies (PAS) week celebration.
Cedric Hackett, M.S., academic advisor for departmental PAS, said the BSU was in a transition period and didn’t have an allocated budget.
Keishonna West, senior, president of BSU and communication studies and PAS major, said she wanted to advocate for the redistribution of additional funding.
“Our organization is growing in members,” West said. “It will be a disadvantage to try to get $1,000 for the entire year.”
Jodi M. Murray, 22, CTVA major, said the celebration week acknowledged when PAS became an official department on campus.
The PAS week celebration will be held the first week of November.