At Monday's meeting of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS), senators discussed three constitutional amendments concerning event funding, the public announcement of judiciary council (JC) hearing and club funding. The senate passed the amendment mandating a referendum on discretionary allocation over $10,000 for single events. A referendum is not required for this change because it is a change to the bylaws of the constitution. The amendment requiring the JC chair to notify the student body of hearings 72 hours prior to the hearing also passed. This amendment, because it will change the text of the constitution, will go to referendum next week. The amendment on club funding was tabled.

Treasurer Paris Wallace '04 presented the budgetary committee's (BC) weekly discretionary funding recommendations. The BC recommended allocating a total of $2,257.06. The only request that was denied in full was a request for $375 from the Amherst Fencing Club to attend the 2004 New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference at Tufts University.

"The feeling was that … they have not paid any form of dues yet," senator and BC member Matt Vanneman '06 said. "We thought people should be able to contribute [approximately $15 per person]," he added.

"The issue here is springing this on the fencing club in the spring semester," said senator Mihailis Diamantis '04, former president of the fencing club. "There's not an expectation for any club that's not a ... sport [to pay dues]."

Senator and BC member Rania Arja '06 disagreed with Diamantis's reasoning. "I think it's very dangerous for us to give funding to a club just because they told their members that they wouldn't have to pay dues. Other senators felt that the fencing club had misrepresented its size last semester, which, they felt, weakened the argument for providing the team with more money this semester.

Last semester, club members indicated that they had 25 members attending practices and received funding for equipment for 25 participants. However, they only have 18 regularly-attending participants this semester. Senator Ethan Davis '05, a member of the BC, suggested that since the fencing club may have inflated its membership last semester and since its members are not currently required to pay dues, they did not deserve any additional funds.

Senator Dan Reiss '05 said that the decision might hurt club membership. "We might adversely affect membership without realizing it," he said.

The amendment to the discretionary funding allocations to fund the club's competition fees failed 7-15.