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The 51st student senate denied an appeal and elected two students to the Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) at their first meeting of the semester on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
Club Soccer President Jonathan Reynolds stood before the legislative body and appealed to re-gain access to the club’s line item budget this semester after the Student Association (SA) Executive Board (E-board) froze the club’s account in December 2010.
When five kids from Club Soccer were caught smoking marijuana during an SA funded hotel stay for a soccer tournament, the hotel proceeded to fine them $250. Reynolds said that at the time, the club members did not have the money to pay for it.
When the SA E-board was contacted by the hotel about the fine, they did not pay for it because of the collective opinion that it was unfair to use “student money to be paying for something they shouldn’t be doing in the first place,” said SA President Jennifer Sanchez.
Sanchez said that, instead, they asked that the five members pay the fine.
Because only two of the five now expelled members of the team paid part of the fee, Reynolds said he had to include $140 of his own money in order to make the deadline given by SA, but Sanchez said the fee was paid on Dec. 10 after two deadline extensions and multiple attempts at contacting Reynolds were made.
While Reynolds said “personal issues” prevented him from staying in contact with Sanchez, Sen. Kaitlyn Day and other members of the legislative body thought he could have asked somebody else to handle the issue.
“He should have delegated power if he knew he was going through something,” said Day.
Although the appeal was denied, the case will be presented to the judicial board in the near future.
After a brief discussion, the legislative body elected Sens. Rose Faber and Joseph Nofi to BFC.
SA Vice President Eve Stern announced that gender-neutral bathrooms will be installed during Fall 2011.
The next general student senate meeting will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 15 in Student Union 418.