The GUSA Senate passed the 2008-2009 student activities budget last night with a resounding majority despite anticipated opposition and motions to table the bill for further consideration.
The $310,000 budget passed with a vote of 24 in favor, zero against and four abstentions. Eight senators were absent.
Student Association President Pat Dowd (SFS ’09) and Vice President James Kelly (COL ’09) addressed the senate prior to debate, calling attention to the funds allocated for the new Summer Fellow Initiative. This program was created to allot funds to house low-income Georgetown students who are staying in the District with unpaid internships over the summer.
Dowd had requested over $44,000 for the program, but the GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee decided to set aside $10,820.25 for the program’s start-up, which will go toward housing for five students. The initiative was a centerpiece of Dowd and Kelly’s presidential campaign.
“While this funding is sufficient to get the pilot program off the ground, I would not call it robust,” Dowd said.
Both Dowd and Kelly urged the senate to consider allocating more funds.
“We can definitely handle up to 10 students for the summer. That would be an adequate size to consider in your deliberations tonight,” Kelly said.
Senator Zack Bluestone (SFS ’09), who chairs the GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee, said the Summer Fellows Program was cut down because of what he described as a lack of foresight, which he said had been mentioned to [Dowd and Kelly] previously.
“For a pilot program, 20 people and $40,000 is simply too large,” he said.
“We wanted to help it get started, and it seemed like a good use of funds. The overwhelming majority [of the committee] thought that five people was a good place to start,” he added.
After $800,000 in club reserve funds accumulated this year, senator Matt Stoller (COL ’08) expressed his wishes to reconsider the allocation of the funds, which, if unused, typically roll over into the endowment to accrue interest.
Many student club leaders expressed concern that so many funds were kept in reserve while they struggled to attain adequate funding by the university.
Stoller’s opposition to the budget bill was expected because he previously stated he wanted the budget to be tabled by the senate, in which case it would revert to the Finance and Appropriations Committee for revision and passage by a simple majority. Seven of the committee’s 13 members are GUSA senators. The senate can only approve, disapprove or table the budget, and it cannot revise it.
Stoller met opposition from Senators Matt Wagner (COL ’11) and Bluestone.
“If we don’t approve that budget as the funding board sent it to us, we are going to lose a serious amount of respect and credibility from a board that has to agree with us unanimously,” he said.
Wagner added that if the bill were to be tabled for consideration, the Summer Fellows program would likely lose its place in the budget.
“I understand why you wish it could be bigger, but if we bring it back to the table it’s likely that it won’t get off the ground at all, let alone grow,” he said.
Senator George Roche (COL ’10) said it was not worth setting the bill aside for further consideration, adding that over $33,000 would still be available to supplement the program if an overwhelming number of qualified applications were received.
The passage of the budget allows the university’s six funding advisory boards to allocate money to the organizations under their oversight for the fiscal year beginning in July.