I must first say that the problem with the Senate Discretionary Fund is not Todd Swanson. Todd is the finance director, that is, facilitator. He does not make the decision.s; he only carries them out. Todd has been the most efficient, effective and fair finance director I have ever known in my service to GSB. The charge that Todd neglected to tell the Senate the current balance is without merit. Senators don’t need Todd’s help to add ($2,000 + $3,000 + $1,500 … etc ).

The problem is with the Senate. I have no such praise for them. In fact, this has been the worst Senate I have ever known. They started out the year very young and very naive. One of the first funding bills of the year was for $5,000 for the Big Eight Black Student Government Conference (a full third of that semester’s fund). The BSA attended the meeting in mass and successfully intimidated the senate into going along with its request. After all, no self-respecting senator would want to be thought of as a racist for denying funding. Six Senators voted ‘No’, I among them. They were all veterans to the Senate and knew better. They knew, as I did, that this would open the flood gate to the greatest spending orgy that GSB has seen in recent times. And it did.

As predictable as sheep, the Senate voted for almost any request that was made of it. I guess the senators’ rationale was that if they consistently voted ‘Yes’ for everything, they could continue to lie to themselves about the integrity of their own gelatinous spines.

On a different note, thanks to Carmen Cerra for his vote of confidence to have me be next year’s finance director, but I must respectfully decline. I could never enjoy that job.

Mark Nimmer

Senior, Electrical Engineering

Off-Campus Senator