On Monday, April 2, the Council of Organizations elected students to several positions.
Student Association Productions (SAP) elections were held at the beginning of the meeting. Council of Organizations Chair Shayna Bentley announced that Wale will be performing at this year’s spring concert and those on the SAP board will be helping with the concert.
There were two seats open for SAP and Sen. Kaychelle English filled one. English said she wants to help with this event and make sure the concert goes smoothly.
There were also council chair elections. Council chair must lead all council of organizations meetings as well as keep 12 office hours per week among other requirements, according to Bentley.
Two people were nominated for the seat: one was Liz Pinto of Dumbledore’s Army, and the other was Sen. Rose Faber. Faber, a fourth-year Women Studies major, said she wants to continue the Community Outreach and Development Plan for next semester. She said she wants to bring workshops and training sessions before council meetings for clubs to learn how to fill out paperwork properly in the future.
Following this were E-board announcements. Bentley said organizations that missed all three council meetings so far or do not have a charter must speak with her.
The meeting ended with Vice President of Finance Youssouf Kouyo speaking about The Budget and Finance Committee weekend. He said $1.5 million was allocated for next year and those with line items will not be able to receive money from General Programming.
Therefore clubs that requested small amounts of money for their budget were denied so they have a chance to request money from the $183,000 in General Programming in the future.
Kouyo said if a club misses three meetings, they will lose their line and as penalty will not be able to receive money from General Programming for at least one month.
He said a few clubs were denied line items for next year due to reasons such as poor council standing or a lack of charter. These clubs must email Senate Chair Alberto Aquino at senatechair@newpaltz.sa and go to next week’s Senate meeting to discuss their budgets. The clubs currently on the list are Avant-Garde Magazine, Ice Hockey and SSDP/NORML.
Kouyo said other changes made to the budget for next year include clubs receiving two-thirds funding for travel and only receiving food for one organization meeting.