Council Clippings Senate and House

Tuesday's Undergraduate House of Representatives meeting threatened to be a short one, as there were not enough members present at the start of the session to make quorum.

Executive Vice President Lamar Stewart said he would re-call roll after officer reports and the special guest presentation were concluded.

"We have four meetings left, and we have one giant budget left that we haven't passed yet," said Amy Phuong, undergraduate student body president, in her report.

"We're going to be in a bit of a time crunch, especially if we don't meet quorum tonight."

After other officers presented their reports, and special guest Mitchel Keller of the Honors Advisory Council publicized next Tuesday's open forum panel discussions about file sharing, enough representatives were present to make quorum.

Like the graduates, the undergrads where quick to pass or postpone the allocations bills before them in order to move on to discussing the budget.

UHR also postponed consideration of the allocation bill to the Industrial Design Society of America because no club members were present.

An allocation for the Georgia Tech Mock Trial team's travel expenses to their national tournament in Illinois was also tabled, as there was no organization representative present. However, some members of the house knew the specifics of the bill, and were later able to relate those to the floor. The bill was then brought up for consideration once more and passed.

Also considered with virtually no discussion were an allocation to the Caribbean Students Association for its Caribbean Week activities and a bill to fund the purchase of a new buzzer system for the Academic Quiz Bowl team. Both bills were passed in full.

The main sources of contention in the meeting came during the ensuing budget discussion.

Public Policy Representative Alex Suarez suggested that the Pride Alliance budget be cut entirely, because he said that they had become what could be defined as a political organization.

SGA does not fund political organizations such as the College Democrats and College Republicans.

Suarez said he had no problem with the club itself, but that a cultural organization should not be used for political activities. "It's a matter of fairness," he said.

He cited Pride Alliance's involvement with campaigning against the proposed amendment banning gay marriage in last November's election.

Other representatives said such advocacy on the organization's part was in their direct interest in terms of the culture it represents and its very existence.

Suarez argued a political organization is one that campaigns to influence a vote or other public policy.

Treasurer Ambika Bumb said that JFC defines and categorizes organizations based on their Cyberbuzz classification and the organization's constitution, and under those criteria, Pride was not considered a political organization.

In the end, representatives failed the measure, voting to keep the organization's funding intact.

Other funding was added back in, such as a request from the Musicians' Network for $300 to cover maintenance fees.

Organization representatives said they are forced to pay such fees when they need maintenance done in the Under the Couch space, citing as an example the need for insulation on hot water piping in the area that had caused the room to become unbearably hot during winter.

The graduates had considered the same re-addition, but failed it.

After some other considerations of motions, the budget bill was postponed until next week for further discussion.

Representatives also nominated and voted on a chair and members of an Awards committee to be in charge of administration duties associated with the nomination and election of UHR award winners.