KASSY LOCHHEAD AND MARIA SULZEN
STAFF WRITERS
Franciscan University Student Government met March 16 to discuss funds allocations for “The Gadfly” as well as for Young Americans for Freedom, Students for Life and the Board Game Association.
Spring bill #35 caused much debate among the Student Government body. It was an allocation of funds for “The Gadfly,” sponsored by Sen. Annemarie Crawl. This would allocate $20 monthly to “The Gadfly” as an incentive to attract writers.
Sen. Harrison Rapp asked Anthony Halstead, the club representative about this, who explained, “It’s an award. People are more likely to do the things asked of them. We have a lack of writers. People simply aren’t writing for us. We are willing to pay $5 for the four best articles. The quality of the writing will go up.”
Some of the senators were not in favor of this bill.
Sen. Sarah Sperduto said, “I am not in support of this. It is a gray area whether they should be paid. It is not a good tradition to start — students should join a club because it looks good on a resume or because they want to.”
Sen. Stephen Shaw said, “I doubt people will write just for $5. I don’t know that this is the best way to use $20.”
Others, however, were in full support.
Crawl said, “We should help them out this month and see how it goes.”
Sen. Daniel Smith said, “I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt.”
Halstead went on to say that “the problem is we don’t get published enough. We’re lucky if we get one or maybe two writers per month.”
Sperduto continued to push against the bill, suggesting a more effective form of advertisement.
“I’d be way more in support to give them money for a social to advertise than this,” said Sperduto. “This is leaning towards bribery.”
In the end, the bill was passed with five against the allocation and seven for it.
Sponsored by Shaw, spring bill #36 allocated $175 to Students for Life for the Kristan Hawkins speaking event.
Rapp said, “I am in support of this bill. Pro-life is very important to this university, and this will have a good student attendance.”
The bill passed.
Spring bill #33, an allocation of funds to Young Americans for Freedom, would have been an allocation of $300 for the debate watch party, but the bill failed.
“I really don’t want to give out another $300 for a debate watch party,” said Rapp, who was the first to reject the bill.
Others, including Sen. Adam Basinger, agreed.
Sperduto said, “We offered ideas for them to raise their own money. This is an unnecessary use of our funds.”
Senate spring bill #32, another reallocation to Young Americans for Freedom for the CPAC, reallocated $525 for the spring speaker event to reimburse club president Tommy Valentine. This bill was sponsored by Smith.
Spring bill #34, an allocation of funds to the Board Game Association, reimbursed Joshua McKenna for the club’s pizza night. The total came to $38.10 for six pizzas.
The meeting was adjourned with much talk about preparations for the coming of the end of the school year.