Associated Students gave $7,000 to A.S. Recreational Sports for an intramural basketball team to travel to Texas for a championship as well as $5,000 to Filipino American Student Association (FASA) for the Pilipino Cultural Night (PCN), during a meeting Tuesday.

While the basketball team has already received $3,000 from A.S., a request for an additional $4,000 for travel expenses for the 11 players on the team came after they were invited to a regional and national basketball championship held by the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA).

“This is the only California team to go to Texas, also given the numbers left for unsigned contingency I don’t think there is a threat (to the budget),” said Senator Melinda Hambrick.

An amendment to the recommendation acknowledged that the basketball team will receive $1,500 from NIRSA when they arrive in Texas for the championship, and requires the team return this money to A.S.

A.S. quickly passed a recommendation to allocate $5,000 to CSUN Filipino American Student Association(FASA) for the Pilipino Cultural Night (PCN).

FASA coordinator Isabel Miclat, Vice President Lois Park, and a past president spoke in favor of PCN during open forum, saying the association is in need of money due to worn out costumes and props.

“I am not a Filipino, but through this club I’ve seen a different part of Filipino culture, like dancing, which has been greatly lost culturally,” Park said.

Money for both organizations will come from unassigned contingency funds, which has about $25,000 left after today’s decisions.

A resolution to support the reinforcement of California buildings after the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan and New Zealand was also passed at the meeting.

Inspired by the February 22, 2010 earthquake in New Zealand, which killed 166 people, and the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which killed an estimated 10,000, A.S. passed a resolution that stresses the need to reevaluate areas that could be affected by earthquakes and tsunamis.

“This affirms we recognize the need to evaluate how we react to these sort of natural occurrences,” said Vice President Neil Sanchez.

In the resolution, A.S. asks Congress not to cut the budget for the National Weather Service, which runs the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, because it could increase the level of devastation in the event of a natural disaster.

The resolution also encourages the International Atomic Energy Agency to require stricter standards for seismic building codes for nuclear power plants, the need to assess current emergency funds and evaluate if more needs to be added, and that new and existing buildings in California be reinforced to withstand a 9.0 earthquake.

The requests are made with hopes for an urgent response, as California is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and is overdue for an earthquake.

Two new members approved

A.S. approved two new members during a meeting Tuesday.

Alyssa Tyner was approved for the Health and Human Development Finance Committee. She is described by the A.S. agenda as a hard worker with a background in finance who is excited to be on the finance committee.

“I am a freshman kinesiology major, want to get involved with AS and hopefully work my way up through the years,” Tyner said.

Troy Scott, a theater major with past leadership experience in his fraternity, was approved for the Arts, Media, and Communications Finance Committee.