Boston University’s Student Government met Monday night to review proposals from several student groups concerning the allocation of funds from the SG budget.
Vice President of Finance Bernie Lai gave a budget report at the beginning of the meeting, putting SG’s current budget at $37,968.
Two College of Engineering government representatives submitted a request for a total of $7,000 for their upcoming event, the BU Spring Carnival, to be held in April. The funding would go toward food trucks for the “Parks and Recreation”-themed event. ENG is expected to contribute over $10,000 of their own budget for games, raffles, a DJ and a “Lil Sebastian” impersonator.
After some discussion, ENG’s request was approved by a vote of 20-6, with three abstaining. A line-by-line breakdown of expected expenses will be distributed to the senators later this week.
A second proposal came from the group BUNITED, for its Student-Led Diversity Conference titled “Get to the Root: Unearthing Oppression and Cultivating Change.”
For this weekend’s event, BUNITED requested $2,772 to cover catering costs. Discussion continued well past Senate Chair Octavio Vidal’s proposed seven-minute limit, and sparked conversation on what is considered proper allocation of SG funds. Ultimately, the proposal was unanimously approved.
Nehemiah Dureus, a junior senator in ENG, said he appreciates SG funding initiatives that support diversity and impactful conversation around campus.
“With the events that are going on in the actual world, and with a revival of bigotry and racist ideals, having events like these are really important,” Dureus said.
Senator Charles Emhardt proposed the formation of a mobile app committee to look into revamping the BU app in the coming months. In comparison to other area schools, BU’s single iOS app does not compare, Emhardt said, specifically using Northeastern’s NUGO app as his example.
“This app is garbage,” Emhardt said of the BU mobile app. “We’re better than Northeastern. We can do this.”
Antara Jaima, a senior senator in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, took the floor to request retroactive funding for the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism’s Gayla, which took place over the weekend. Jaima requested $318 to cover the cost of catering and to possibly support future events. No bylaws currently exist blocking requests for aid after the fact.
Jaima’s proposal drew heated discussion from the senators. Concerns were raised over setting a precedent for post-event funding requests and whether SG should focus on funding student initiatives or its own events.
Elliot Snow, a freshman at-large senator in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the CGSA proposal didn’t pass because CGSA was trying to get funding too quickly.
“The fact is that SAO is legally obligated to give them the money, and it actually is probably better for them in the long run just to kind of hold their press and wait for that, because it probably would have taken us longer if [the payment proposal] had been passed,” Snow said.
Monday’s meeting ended with an impromptu speech from President SaraAnn Kurkul about community within SG, addressing concerns that the meeting’s debates had become divisive. She stressed the role of SG as not only a financial resource, but also as a voice for students.
“In the past couple years, Senate has really acted as an allocation forum, so when student groups aren’t getting the funding assigned by allocation groups, we’re the last group they come to,” Kurkul said. “It’s great to be able to support student groups, but as Student Government, we should be able to be having our own avenues for supporting students.”
Jahnavi Bhatia, a junior senator in CAS, said she was glad that SG passed several proposals.
“I think it’s good that even after the debate we did decide to give the money to the organizations that needed it,” she said.
Vidal said he was pleased to see an increase in the level of discussion from previous meetings.
“I really love seeing that because it means [senators] are working harder … They’re really going with what speaks to them,” Vidal said.
Shaun Robinson contributed to the reporting in this article.
