Council Clippings: Four bills pass in UHR meeting
By Michael Schneider / Student Publications
Nick Frees, an Expansion Consultant for the Sigma Pi fraternity, promotes the new Greek organization to the Representatives.
The Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) began their meeting this week with announcements about campus activities. Tickets for Six Flags Night on Sept. 28 are still on sale online for $13 and for $15 at the Student Center Ticket Office. This Friday at noon in the Campanile there will be a pep rally before the football game, "with cheerleaders and potentially some football players there," said Steven Kump, the vice president of Campus Affairs. Students were encouraged to wear gold to both the pep rally and the game.
The first bill considered by the House was the affirmation of the nominations to three Executive Committee chairs. The bill, which had been tabled after last week's meeting, was split into two bills. The first new bill was the approval of Bert Finney as the Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. The second bill, pertaining to the affirmations of Mark Youngblood and Bob Worrall was again tabled, as Executives Nomination's Chair Leah McCormick had still not heard back from the two.
Wreck Racing submitted the next bill. The organization was requesting $4,381 to go towards new racing equipment and eventually a new car. The bill was originally presented last week, and while the Graduate Student Senate voted on it, the House tabled the bill as no organizational representative attended. The Senate had, however, passed the bill before the new Joint Finance Policy was passed. The version passed by the Senate did not conform to the new policy.
"Graduates voted on the older JFC policy, or the non-existent JFC policy, so they did not pay attention to the new JFC policy, nor did I when I looked at the bill," said Varun Prasad, JFC Chair.
"We don't want to retroactively penalize this organization just because of the new policy," said Matt Peeples, the executive vice president. As such, the House considered the bill without the new JFC recommendation, choosing to consider the bill in reference to the JFC policy in place on the date of original presentation and not this week. The House passed the bill in the identical form as the Senate, despite conflict with the new JFC policy.
The House then suspended the rules in order to move the next bill, the affirmation of two new council representatives, into old business. The motion passed, and the House approved the new representatives unanimously.
The fourth bill voted on by the house was the joint allocation to the Students for Objectivism. Fred Zahrn spoke for the organization, explaining that the group was presenting a speaker on "The Road to 9/11", a foreign policy analysis based on the political philosophy of Objectivism.
The group requested $500 for the speaker's fee, as well as compensation for a Technique ad. The House passed the bill in full in accordance with the JFC recommendation.
The final bill considered by the House was the joint allocation to Musicians Network. Ryan James spoke for the organization. A recent power outage broke some of the group's equipment, and they requested $417 to purchase replacement equipment as well as an uninterruptible power supply, which came with a $150,000 warranty, to help protect the equipment in the future. The House passed the bill after amending per JFC recommendation with 39 votes in favor, 3 votes against, and 1 abstention.
Bills passed:
- Joint Allocation to Wreck Racing
- Affirmation of new council representatives
- Joint Allocation to Students of Objectivism
- Joint Allocation to Musicians Network
