The Black Students' Union (BSU) received the largest allocation this week. The funds will cover the costs of its upcoming annual Harlem Renaissance event. Initially, the BSU had asked the president's office to fund the dinner portion of the evening, but the office only gave the BSU $500, $1,800 short of the cost of the food.
Senator Molibi Maphanyane '06 moved to increase the BSU's allocation by $1,800 in order to pay for the dinner. This sparked a heated debate about when and why money should be given to pay for food.
Senator Matt Vanneman '06, a member of the BC, stated that in order to obtain money for food, an organization's event must pass the "vacuum test." An event passes the vacuum test if it no longer makes sense to have the event if food is not included.
"Hillel's Shabbat dinners pass the vacuum test because if you take the food away, the event does not make sense," said Vanneman.
According to Vanneman, the dinner aspect of the BSU's Harlem Renaissance evening should not be funded, because the BSU could host the event without serving dinner.
Tim Jones '04, president of the BSU, argued that the event should pass the test. "Harlem Renaissance is an evening of elegance and the food is an integral part of the event," he said. "It is set up to be a dinner and dance, and if you take those away, you'd only have a talent show."
Senator Ethan Davis '05 echoed Jones' sentiments. "Though I like to be fiscally prudent, I think a dinner and a dance does not make sense without the dinner," he said.
After lengthy discussion, the AAS approved the additional $1,800, bringing to total BSU allocation to $3,831.
Affirmations, a group which holds bi-semester religious dinners, believed they had been allocated $1,700 to pay for their dinners when in actuality they had been allocated half that amount, enough to pay for one dinner. Affirmations requested the remaining $850, but the BC and the Senate denied the request.
Following the approval of the final BC funding recommendations, Maphanyane delivered a report on the club budget submission process for the spring semester. He indicated that there were many organizational problems with the process.
First, the BC did not have a list of all the recognized clubs and organizations or a contact list. As a result, two or three clubs "fell through the cracks," said Maphanyane. A larger problem, according to Maphanyane, was that new clubs and organizations were not officially recognized until Nov. 3, just two days before budgets were due. As a result, the BC extended the budget submission deadline for newly recognized clubs and will have the initial budget allocations in place by Nov. 17.
AAS President Ryan Park delivered a report on behalf of the ad-hoc committee on Internet-based music file-sharing. Park indicated that he had discussed a number of options concerning legal file-sharing with Dean of Students Ben Lieber. "[The process is] not worth the legal and fiscal issues to go through with this," said Park.
Senator Daniel Reiss '05 proposed a constitutional amendment calling for a campus-wide referendum every time the BC approved requests for over $14,000. The amendment was passed to a joint group composed of three judiciary committee members and four BC members. The group will discuss the feasibility of the proposed amendment and report to the AAS when they have reached a conclusion.
Senator Ian Shin '06 gave a presentation on the early progression of the AAS dining services committee. The committee is concentrating on food availability and dining hall hours.