During the ensuing discussion the school-wide vote was changed to be called a survey. Davis also favored instituting a policy of holding a referendum, which would be non-binding, on every allotment of 20 percent or more of the AAS budget.
Flood, the primary organizer of the Formal, responded to Davis' motion. He said that in the survey on the Daily Jolt, the majority of respondents favored a bigger Spring Formal than last year's. After a period of discussion, Flood pushed the issue to a vote. The proposal did not garner the requisite two-thirds majority vote, and failed.
Treasurer and Budgetary Committee (BC) Chair Livia Angiolillo '04 announced the initial budgetary recommendations for the upcoming fall semester. After discussion, 19 of the 22 senators present voted to pass the BC recommendations as presented.
Angiolillo expects the student activities fee, currently $260, for students on campus next fall to provide the AAS with a budget of $286,380.38. This prediction is based upon calculations made using statistics from the past two fall semesters. However, Livia explained that the budget is likely to be at least $8,000 greater than the aforementioned figure due to current global tension and the possibility of fewer students going abroad, increasing the number of students paying activities fees.
Angiolillo said that $107,392.64 of the budget will go into the Master General Fund to pay for administrative expenses, including the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority buses and class council projects. The remaining $178,987.74 will be divided between initial allocations for clubs ($71,595.10), appeals ($26,848.16) and the programming ($53,696.32) and discretionary ($26,848.16) funds.
Short discussions focused on a small number of the clubs which were allotted funding followed Angiolillo's recommendations.
Geoff Walter '04 inquired into the BC's failure to provide any funding for Scrutiny, a publication that compiles students' ratings of classes. Angiolillo explained that the BC had decided, in a very close vote, to not provide funding to Scrutiny for the fall semester and to ask the editors of the publication to provide the information online. This decision was made due to the fact that "Scrutiny really failed us last semester," said Senator Paris Wallace '04. Senator Mike Flood '03 explained that the recommendations certainly did not preclude AAS funding Scrutiny in semesters to come and that the publication would have a chance to prove that it could print real findings.
Angiolillo explained a change in BC policy towards publications. They no longer fund strictly 60 percent of the amount publications claim they need to produce a semester's issues. "We went back to the past two semesters to see how much publications actually spent," she said.
Rocío Digón '03 presented a proposal to send a letter to faculty members to "encourage [them] to initiate a series of 'Conversations on Iraq,' similar to those that occurred last year in November to discuss Sept. 11 and the possibility of war in Afghanistan," said the proposed letter. Digón said the letter suggests that groups of two professors and 15 students participate in the discussions. The senate approved the proposed letter.
AAS Vice President Bob Razavi '03, who also serves as the president of the senate dismissed three senators at the meeting from the senate for unexcused non-attendance from three meetings. Razavi dismissed Blake Sparrow '04, Ali Hassan '05 and Techo Kim '06. Due to the dismissals, several committee seats are now vacant. A.J. Korytoski '04 ran unopposed for the Committee on Educational Policy. John Lian '06 joined the ad hoc committee on dining services, which plans to meet with Valentine managers this week.