At last night’s Student Union Senate meeting, Union President Ethan Clay revealed a poster campaign to voice the student body’s response to Chancellor John Silber’s recent elimination of the Boston University Academy Gay-Straight Alliance.
The campaign, sponsored by the Student Union, Spectrum, the Multicultural Council, and the Presidents Council, includes a series of six rainbow colored flyers emphasizing diversity and expressing respect for all people. They will be placed around campus beginning tomorrow.
According to Clay, the campaign is a response to the concern many students expressed after Silber’s decision to ban the GSA.
“A large concern of students was that John Silber was representing their belief,” he said.
In an effort to encourage both senators and students to respond to Silber’s decision, Clay reminded the senators the BU community does not have to conform to the actions of one man.
“What we believe is not necessarily represented by the actions of those who represent us,” he said, regarding Silber. “It is apparent that our community is in disagreement, but we are the ones who have ultimate authority over our actions.”
Clay said he hopes the poster campaign will communicate the fact “BU is a safe, accepting and respectful campus.
“That’s what we have control of — the message and the spirit of the undergraduate population,” Clay said.
Last night, the Union Senate also approved this year’s budget without opposition, a motion that had been tabled from last week’s meeting.
Joe Rollin, VP of financial affairs, modified the budget presented a week earlier with a 20 percent increase in each of the three accounts the Senate has control over. VP of Student Affairs Carl Woog proposed the final modification to the budget, Rollin said.
A vote on the original budget presented last week was postponed due to the unequal distribution of this year’s increased amount of available funds. This year, the Union received one dollar more from each student than in past years, resulting in a larger amount of funds to be distributed among the various Union accounts.
Most of the increase was originally allocated to the discretion of the E-Board, but the budget approved last night gave the Senate control over an additional $3,200.
The remaining $9,000 of this year’s increased funds will remain in the general account under the control of the Executive Board.
However, according to Rollin, most or all of this money will eventually be allocated to the Programming Council for the numerous events they are planning for the year. After the $9,000 is transferred, Programming Council will receive approximately 65 percent of the total amount allocated to the Union, which has been the percentage traditionally allocated to the branch.
Student Union Elections Commission Vice-Chair Stefanie Magner also spoke at the meeting, informing the senators about the two vacant seats still remaining in the Senate.
One seat is still available in the constituencies of both Danielsen Hall and Hamilton House. SUEC is accepting applications until this Wednesday.
Several remaining senator-elects from college governments were also officially sworn in at last night’s meeting. The new senators were unable to be sworn in at last week’s meeting due to the rules governing their respective college governments.
Last night’s Senate meeting also included the appointment of Co-Historian Lisa Ruchaevska by President Clay, and the Senate’s unanimous approval of Senator Jordan Bonomo as a representative of Hamilton House.
Ruchaevska, a School of Management freshman, would focus on assembling an active record of the Union’s activities this year, according to Clay.