Council Clippings Senate and House

The Undergraduate House of Representatives passed nine bills in a lengthy meeting Tuesday night. With no session next week as a result of Fall Break, the representatives made an effort to deal with as many bills as possible this week.

Before dealing with the bills, however, the representatives received news of the conclusion of the SGA sign issue.

After the death of the bill thanks to a mistake in the Conference Committee version last week, SGA was able to secure outside funding for the project rather than making students foot the bill.

Amy Phuong, undergraduate student body president, said that one of the reasons the organization was able to receive money that it had failed to obtain previously was the negative reaction some students had to being expected to pay for the sign.

The undergraduates then proceeded to discuss four separate bills allocating funds to the Men’s Lacrosse Club.

Between all of the bills, the club asked for over $20,000 to help cover its operating expenses. Tech’s lacrosse team has over the past years won several tournaments and competed on the national level.

The large sum of money requested by the club is a result of it not yet having an SGA-granted budget for this year.

“We missed the budget deadline last year due to a computer crash the week before [it was due],” said Michael Yeager, president of the club.

Because of this, the club asked for expenses such as regional sports conference dues, coach salaries, travel to tournaments, and some equipment money.

The large total raised concerns among the representatives, however. The club explained that the total amount they asked SGA for comes out to roughly one third of the club’s budget.

One representative asked about the club’s other fundraising activities, including what their dues are used for, and another wanted to know why the club was asking for significantly more money this year than last year.

Yeager explained that the Lacrosse Club’s yearly fee of $500 goes to pay for another third of the club’s expenses, with the final third being taken up by alumni and company donations.

The 54-member club more than doubled in size from last year, explaining the increased funding request.

The club also needed to do some emergency fundraising last year when it discovered it would be going to the U.S. Lacrosse Men’s Division Intercollegiate Assocaites (USLIA) national tournament with less than two weeks’ notice.

“Winning the championship actually put more pressure on our finances,” Yeager said.

At the time, the club raised about $5,000, largely from the parents of players and from alumni contributions.

This year, the club asked for money to cover this trip in advance, a controversial request that met opposition from JFC.

The Lacrosse Club’s equipment bill also met opposition from several reps, as many of them were afraid of setting a precedent that would allow organizations to ask SGA to cover their equipment year after year.

Concerns over the quality of the existing equipment did sway the undergraduates in favor of the bill, however.

“It’s a rough sport, people die,” said Aakash Jariwala, Physics representative.

In the end, all four bills passed by a significant margin, and the club received a majority of its requested funds.

The sums for purchases of the arm pads, shoulder pads and helmets were adjusted slightly down, and certain equipment such as extra handles and tape were struck from the largest request. The travel and coach salary bills were passed in full.

The representatives also passed a bill from the Chinese Student Association, which requested $265 for its Ultimate Mixer event.

JFC initially recommended the bill not be funded, as they were under the impression that Tech students would be expected to fund the entire expense of an event that was freely open to students from other schools as well.

This issue was clarified by the organization representative, who explained that other schools were in fact going to contribute to the event. As a result of the explanation the bill was passed for the full amount.

Also passed was a bill allocating $22,270 to the Music Listening Room for the purpose of replacing the second half of the room’s old furniture, which had served the campus for 20 years, as well as a bill allocating over $10,000 to TEAM Buzz for the purchase or rental of tools and other miscellaneous equipment.

The representatives then moved two bills from new business to old and voted on them after little discussion.

The result was the passage of a bill granting $55 to the Women’s Leadership Conference for a Technique ad and a bill to appoint new members to the Joint Campus Organizations Committee, which the undergraduates passed quickly by unanimous acclamation.