GSB to focus on funding

Ross Boettcher

Wednesday’s Government of the Student Body Senate meeting will be full of balances, budgets and decision-making as members of the Senate make final rulings and suggestions on the Finance Committee’s Special Allocations Bill.

Members of each student group being represented in the bill will be in attendance to make their voices heard if need be.

Although there will be other orders of business to be attended to, GSB President Brian Phillips, senior in political science, said some planning is done to keep the focus on Special Allocations.

“We try to plan it out so that there aren’t any other bills up for second read on the same night as Special Allocations,” Phillips said. “If there were other bills, the debate would be unbearable.”

Each senator will have the opportunity to single out and question individual groups regarding budget issues and the updated funding allotted by the GSB Finance Committee. Senators cannot make direct changes to each group’s budget, but can send the budgets back to the Finance Committee for further amendment.

While the GSB Senate is focused on funding for student groups, the GSB supreme court will be focused on an issue that has been brought to its attention by a GSB Senator regarding the Rules Committee, a group led by GSB Speaker Adam Krupicka, undeclared graduate student. The issue is related to a temporary position created by Rules Committee to help bring a different set of eyes and opinions to its meetings on a week-to-week basis. Further details about the issue were not readily available.

“Rules [Committee] doesn’t quite have the dynamic that a group such as Finance Committee has,” Krupicka said. “Having that extra person can help make sure that bills are ready for the Senate.”

If the supreme court decides to hear the case, it will be the second case the court hears this year after a four-year stretch without any cases whatsoever.