Student Government began its meeting searching for quorum before moving on to reviewing funding requests Wednesday night.

The Descarga Latin Dance club requested their travel and registration expenses to the Chicago Salsa and Bachata Festival in April to be covered by the Senate Discretionary account of $641.49. 

Finance committee member Sen. Kaitlyn Roling, senior in chemical engineering, and Sen. Morgan Fritz, sophomore in political science, said they had concerns about funding the bill. 

“Past the point of the workshops, it turns into a very large dance party,” Roling said. “I have one point that’s even explicitly mentioned that it’s the biggest rave in Chicago. I’m not sure if this is something we want to be funding.”

Sen. Fritz continued the opposing argument.

“I think if [Student Government] funds this, we have to recognize that while yes, there are workshops for this event, this is also paying for concert tickets,” Fritz said. 

Sen. Ian Searles, senior in geology, defended the bill and mentioned that although the conference isn’t deemed to be a “traditional” conference, there are still educational benefits for the club to attend. 

“I would also like just to say that multiple people have said if it were the ballroom club, we wouldn’t have a problem funding it,” Searles said. “So I would like to ask us, why are we so inclined to fund ballroom, but when it’s a Latin dance club, we have a problem with it? Is that not an inherent bias there? As soon as there is some cultural dance club, we have a problem and spend 30 minutes debating a $600 funding request from a $16,000 budget. That seems like an issue to me.” 

With a vote of 23-0-0, the bill passed.  

Additionally, Senate reviewed a bill to fund the Healthy Walk event on April 1. Student Government will be handing out snacks and drinks during the mile-long walk.

The bill passed with a vote of 23-0-0.

For more information or to contact your senator, visit stugov.iastate.edu. The senate meetings are open to the public at 7 p.m. Wednesdays in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union.