The Student Government Senate voted in favor of funding four requests totaling nearly $10,000 during their weekly meeting Wednesday night.

The requests came from The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and Latinos in Science and Engineering (SHPE-MAES), the African Student Association, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the Iowa State Pride Alliance.

SHPE-MAES is planning to attend a national conference in Ohio in November and requested half of registration and travel from Student Government to attend this conference.

Michael Hiraldo represented them in Student Government Wednesday night and said the organization has been attending for at least the past four years, and to his knowledge they were attending before. Student Government voted 26-0-0 to approve $2,500 in funding for the conference.

Hiraldo also represented the National Society of Black Engineers in requesting $200 for their regional conference where they elect their regional president and vice president and other executive positions and there are workshops focused on engineering for the students to attend. Student Government also approved this request unanimously.

Four board members represented the African Students Association in requesting $4,902 for venue payments and food vending for African Night.

Last year, Student Government approved funding for both, but representatives pointed out they never received funding for the venue last year. Speaker Cody Woodruff said he will look into this matter, but records showed they did approve funding last year. Student Government once again approved funding for both of these costs for the annual event unanimously.

Roslyn Gray represented the Iowa State University Pride Alliance in requesting $2,232.40 from Student Government to fund a trip to their regional conference as well as office supplies and promotional costs for the semester drag show — their main form of fundraising.

Gray identified their pronouns as they and them, but a senator incorrectly identified their gender shortly after Gray spoke. Vice President Juan Bibiloni corrected the senator, and at the end of the meeting several senators spoke about the issue passionately.

“Misgendering people is an awful thing,” Senator Courtney Beringer said. “That’s why last week I talked about [how] when you ask our speaker what their names are and what their pronouns are we do not misgender anyone that comes into this room.”

Several other senators including Lilian Juma, director of the Diversity and Inclusion committee, and Senator Kaitlyn Sanchez from the College of Design discussed about the importance of correctly addressing the speakers that come to Student Government. 

Woodruff also spoke on the matter and said Senate should continue working on improving, but that it is the beginning of the year and that he didn’t believe there was any malintent.

 “I don’t think anyone in this room would do this purposely,” Woodruff said. “We are all still learning it is only just the first month and we will keep learning and growing on this.” 

Director of Student Wellness Mark Rowe-Barth came to speak to Student Government about the progress of their initiatives. They talked about their current goals as well as some accomplishments over the past year including Medication Assisted Treatment at Theilen Student Health Center and providing a substance abuse counselor.

They also promoted an event coming up on Sept. 22 at 8 a.m., a collegiate recovery free tailgate — free of all substances, complete with free food, raffles and door prizes. The event will take place at Brookside Park and is available to all students.

Student Government will reconvene next Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union for their weekly meeting.