In their Aug. 30 meeting, the Associated Student Government voted on three bills passed by the Fee Allocation Committee the previous Monday. The first bill requested supplementary funds for two student members of the National Science Teacher’s Association to travel to a conference. After questions and proposed amendments, the bill passed in its original form.
The remaining two bills regarded funding for the Rowdy Wranglers, a student club composed of six wranglers and a coordinator, Aden Cesmat. ASG President Ben Linzey, a member of the wranglers, proposed the two bills together. The bills concerned money to purchase shirts for the wranglers, harnesses for Rowdy and a wrap for his trailer, money to provide wages for the wranglers and an already purchased trailer.
The second bill originally included a $6,000 refund for CMU President Tim Foster, who bought the trailer with his presidential funds. After the meeting, Linzey explained that he and Cesmat approached Foster when they found an acceptable new trailer for Rowdy last year since they needed to proceed quickly with the purchase or miss their opportunity. When this bill passed through FAC on Aug. 28, members of the committee cut the refund for Foster, on the grounds that FAC has traditionally denied all student reimbursements.
Linzey proposed that ASG add the $6,000 reimbursement back onto the bill, saying after the meeting that from his viewpoint, the Foster refund is a slightly different situation than student refunds.
“If we can help Foster in any way possible, I think he’ll help us,” said Linzey.
When the bill moved to discussion, most senators supported amending the bill to include the refund amount. Senator Vela believed the purchase of the trailer would demonstrate ASG support for the wranglers, an organization he thinks is important in regard to school pride.
“What can we do to possibly make this school and this campus a better place to be?” Vela asked his fellow senators. “Providing Rowdy at these games will increase school pride, and purchasing the trailer will show that we’re a school body that wants to support school pride.”
Though Senator Armstrong agreed with Senator Vela on the value the wranglers provide to the school, he also reminded senators of the importance of FAC and their decisions. He cautioned ASG to be careful to not discredit FAC, but rather to work with them if the amendment passed in their student body, forcing it to go to conference committee.
After more deliberation, the amendment passed ASG. Directly after the meeting, two members from ASG and two from FAC discussed the bill as the conference committee, in order to come to a compromise. The committee decided to cut the $6,000 amendment from the bill and pass it as written for ASG. The issue of the Foster refund will likely be revisited next week, proposed not as a reimbursement, but as a motion to buy the trailer from Foster instead.
