Seat apportionment and club funding were approved during the 35-minute Student Government meeting Wednesday. 

The number of seats allotted for the colleges and residencies in Student Government each term is determined by student enrollment numbers. The bill setting the apportionment for next term passed during the Senate meeting 26-0-0. 

“The only change from the previous year is that the College of Business is going up from two seats to three seats, which will increase the total number of seats from 35 to 36,” Tatum Anthony, a senior in accounting and the vice commissioner for the Election Commission, said. 

Sen. Delaney Graef, a senior majoring in forestry, asked the commission how they get to such specific numbers, and Sen. Brody Kuhse, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering, wanted to know why the total population was divided by 34. 

Santiago Fajardo, a senior majoring in political science and the election commissioner, explained that the numbers are put through an Excel formula to allocate seats to each college and residency. The formula includes the total population divided by 34, because that is the baseline number of Senators in the Student Government. That number, along with the rest of the formula for the apportionment, is stated in the Student Government Bylaws and Constitution. 

“Senate, by default, has 34 members. But sometimes, some of the constituencies out of that fraction that pops out, they’ll fall under one [percent], and they still need to be represented. So that’s why it’s 36… If all of them were above one [percent], we would have 24 Senators,” Fajardo said. 

The largest number of Senate seats goes to the United Residents Off-Campus (UROC) with 10 seats and 10.47% of the proportion of the student housing population. The smallest proportion is the veterinary medicine college, with 0.35% of the college population, and one seat was apportioned. 

Following a string of student organizations seeking financial assistance to cover the new room reservations fee for practice rooms on campus, the Senate approved 26-0-0 to give the Winter Guard $4,500 so that they can prepare for their end-of-year showcase. 

“We are normally just a spring semester club, and we were informed that gym reservations now cost $75 an hour to operate at full capacity,” Bailey Simon, a junior majoring in public relations, said. “For our club, we need the Forker Gym reserved for four hours a week… We’ve never had a payment before.”

The Professional Agriculture Student Organization was also funded $600 for travel to their national conference in a 26-0-0 vote. 

The following internal matters were passed without dissent:

• Seating Sen. Sofia De Lima Barbosa, a junior majoring in architecture, on the sustainability committee 
• Seating Sen. Owen Einwalter, a freshman majoring in civil engineering, on the IDEA committee
• Seating Sen. Grace Gaarde, a senior majoring in political science, on the health and wellness committee
• Seating Sen. Amyah Graybill, a freshman majoring in psychology, on the health and wellness committee
• Seating Sen. Derek Valenzuela, a freshman majoring in political science, on the legislative ambassadors committee

The following bills were read for the first time and will be discussed and voted on in a future meeting: 

• Student Engagement – Student Government Contract 
• Funding for NSBE Flight Costs to the Annual Conference in Baltimore 
• Funding Letters of Love Annual Gala 
• Funding Trend Magazine IV: A New Bill! 

The next Senate meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Memorial Union.