BY MELISSA SOLANO AND ELIJAH SIMON
Franciscan University’s student government met on Wednesday to discuss logistical items for the semester as well as to begin their first allocation of money to clubs.
The treasurer’s report was given by Internal Auditor Billy Himpler. The treasury, after all prerequisites, totals at $12,330.33.
The finance committee announced that they had met and discussed the fall bill and passed it unanimously, 4-0.
Following this, Senate Bill#8 for fall 2014 was brought to the table for discussion. The bill was regarding the proposal of allocation of $35.00 to be given to the Anscombe Society on campus.
The Anscombe Society is dedicated to enriching students’ understanding of the importance of sexual integrity in their lives and the understanding that the flourishing of society depends on healthy family lives and stable marriages to provide the next generation with sound moral instruction.
Annemarie Krall, the co-president of the Anscombe Society, was present for the meeting and stated that the club intended to use the funds to purchase food and refreshments for its upcoming planning meeting. She said they were expecting 5-15 members to be in attendance at the meeting.
Student government debated and unanimously decided to pass the bill.
Student government faculty adviser, David Schmiesing, was then called upon to deliver his advisory notes.
He said that the administration was still in the process of figuring out the student government budget, but estimated that the allocation for the fall semester would be around $40,000 and would be set in stone in the next week. He noted that it has taken some time to figure out a useable budget due to the fact that the budget comes directly from what students pay as a part of on-campus tuition.
Schmiesing said that due to the fact that the university has sent its largest group of students to Austria for the semester (202 students total), there is a smaller budget coming through.
Finally, president Brian Kirby closed the meeting with reminders of the student life club fair on Friday, September 12, encouraging the senators to be faithful to their table commitments.
He also advised the Senate that they ought to be very careful when double-checking the writing of policies and bills, as the rules as to when clubs can request money were unclear and dated as the end of the semester, rather than a few weeks beforehand. He said that this would not be a major problem, but that it could cause difficulty with end-of-the-year auditing.
President Kirby also reiterated from the previous week’s meeting that there are still a handful of remaining seats on student government. As it stands, there is one senior representative seat, two junior representative seats, three freshman representative seats, and three graduate student representative seats that need to be filled.
Next Wednesday’s meeting, the specifics of those seats will be discussed and finalized.