by Alec Williams
For the past three weeks the associated student government (ASG) of CMU has been discussing, in public and behind closed doors, a budget proposal that had been met with scrutiny and doubt. That is until Wednesday, Sept. 28, when a majority of senators expressed their support.
ASG convened for their weekly meeting on Wednesday after taking a staff photo and a discussion on a variety of topics including the controversial proposal that would cut $11,500 from student government staff pay and change items in the ASG constitution.
Social and behavioral sciences senator Jacob Reimer had openly criticized and questioned the bill in previous meetings, but entered the Sept. 28 meeting with a different mind-set.
“I think that this proposal has some good points and has a lot of good things,” Reimer said. “The parts that I’m uncomfortable with is the cutting of external and internal [committees].”
In addition to pay cuts, the bill was proposed to remove some formatting issues to the ASG constitution and move certain organizational committees’ descriptions to the ASG bylaws, instead of the constitution where they currently reside. Reimer went on to say that having the information in the constitution “shows that we are willing to change [the constitution] continually.”
The budget cuts were originally proposed by ASG President Josh Dillinger on Sept. 14, where he received pushback from senators who felt the bill was overreaching and excessive. Some senators considered impeaching Dillinger, but a discussion held on Sept. 21, after the official ASG meeting changed the tide in senate opinion.
“I think the general consensus is everyone really likes this legislation, but most people are just curious about some little things that they can tweak,” Madeline Hoffman, a social and behavioral science senator, said.
With a show of hands, 13 senators expressed their support for the legislation as it was proposed and 10 voted that they would like to see changes made.
“I think last week the meeting afterwards really did help bring us together as a group,” ASG Vice President Ben Linzey said. “I think those senators that did stay, they have the opportunity to really bring the rest of the senate together.”
During the meeting, the last open senate seat was filled as student Harrison Day was elected by the senators to hold the position of senator for computer science, mathematics and statistics. The vote was 21 to one in favor of Day, and he was sworn in.
At the meeting, Linzey offered senators to head student suggestions such as the reinstallation of some bicycle air pumps that had broken down around campus and the addition of a new book drop at Tomlinson Library. Linzey also offered for senators to attend the annual safety walk with CMU President Tim Foster. The walk is done yearly in hopes to point out safety flaws on campus that need fixing. This will be held Oct. 4.
Fee allocations committee (FAC) Chairman Jake Carmin also reviewed the budgets passed for club advisory board and the outdoor program. The FAC evaluated those budgets and approved them with no cuts.
The student government will meet next Wednesday, Oct. 5, and plans to vote on the pay cut legislation.
