The Downtown campus Senate froze all funding allocations in a precautionary measure at Friday’s meeting after a week of widely ranged estimation of how much money student government had for the rest of the semester.
Director of Finance Sam Tongue found out minutes before Friday’s meeting began that they had around $45,000 remaining, but the Executive Board suggested freezing funding so the amount could be confirmed. They also wanted to give the senators enough time to review funding requests, now knowing how much money they had to work with.
“Because we didn’t have a final figure until today, you guys definitely didn’t have enough time to look at these funding requests,” Tongue said to the senators at the meeting.
Because they didn’t want to penalize student organizations due to accounting problems, the senators decided to freeze funding instead of denying each request.
The Senate will address the funding requests at a special Senate meeting on Feb. 10 without needing the organizations to re-submit their requests.
“We don’t want to handcuff these student organizations if we don’t really know what’s going on,” Tongue said. “With everything that has gone on, we thought it was a good idea to postpone and freeze everything until we have everything figured out.”
At the Jan. 20 Senate meeting, the Senate found out the ASU administration overestimated the amount of money they would be receiving to allocate to organizations.
At that meeting, Tongue and the Executive Board estimated they had $19,000 remaining for the rest of the semester. After the meeting, Tongue began calling organizations that already received funding to find out how much money they had spent to get a more accurate estimation.
After reviewing their accounts, Tongue discovered several expenses that had not been authorized by this year’s Senate.
At Wednesday’s Budget Allocations Committee meeting, Tongue announced the Senate had less than $10,000 to give to student organizations for the rest of the semester.
After talking with ASU administrators, Tongue learned these funds were coming from a rollover fund he was not aware of at the beginning of the year, and therefore weren’t included in the original fund estimations.
Totaling around $35,000, rollover funds from last year paid for water filters around campus, a campus subscription to the New York Times and more.
After factoring these funds, Tongue calculated they had about $45,000 remaining, a surprising relief for the Senate.
“Ultimately, it’s great we have as much student fee money as we do, because there would have had to be some really hard decisions made,” Tongue said at the meeting. “But, as of now, it’s looking like the money isn’t as much of an issue as we thought it was going to be.”
In addition, President Joseph Grossman said James Rund, senior vice president of Educational Outreach and Student Services, is willing to give USGD $20,000 of more funding, if necessary.
Both Grossman and Tongue said at the meeting those funds were likely going to be unnecessary, and they are comfortable with how much money they have to distribute now.
“From the looks of things, we’re totally fine,” Tongue said.
Also at Friday’s meeting, the Senate appointed the first Judicial Board member this year. Criminal justice junior Kevin Torge was appointed by Grossman and approved by the Senate by an 8 to 2 vote.
Torge said his work in the attorney general’s office helps qualify him for this position, along with his commitment to the Downtown constitution and desire to be involved with USGD.
“Whenever I apply to do something like that, I’m committed to it,” Torge said.
Torge filled out the Judicial Board application last semester, but never went through an interview before his appointment by the Senate.
Torge said Director of Parliamentary Procedures Andres Cano told him he didn’t need to have an interview.
The senators asked him questions before appointing him, and Torge said he thought that stood in place of his interview.
School of Nutrition and Health Promotions Sen. Rachel Cassinat and Walter Cronkite School Sen. Torunn Sinclair were the two senators who voted against the appointment.
Cassinat said she would have liked to know more about Torge before voting him in, and the few minutes the Senate had to ask him questions wasn’t enough time.
“Though not personally against Kevin or his becoming a part of USGD, I just didn’t feel I knew enough to vote him in,” Cassinat said in an email. “I think we as a student government should take more of a proactive role in who and what we vote for.”
Some senators were also worried about a conflict of interest between Torge and some current members of the Senate and Executive Board.
Torge was roommates with College of Public Programs Sen. Cecilio Porras as a freshman, is currently roommates with College of Public Programs Sen. Joey Amonett and is friends with Grossman.
Grossman also stated he intends to run for president this spring and Amonett said he has yet to decide if he wants to run for senator again.
Amonett acknowledged how this might appear as a conflict of interest, but said Torge would keep his personal feelings out of any potential rulings.
“I can guarantee you he is one of the most unbiased guys I know,” Amonett said. “I don’t think it will be a problem.”
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
