Florida A&M University’s Student Government Associationheld their weekly meeting in the senate chambers on Monday for confirmations and to discuss special allocations.
The SGA jumped right into the evening’s first confirmation. Denied in the last meeting, second year law student, Natalie Alfonso, was finally appointed the position of associate circuit court judge.
“Thank you for honestly finally accepting me,” said Alfonso. “It’s been a process, but if it wasn’t for the journey, I wouldn’t be so appreciative of this position.”
Alfonso says that she went through the process for the position for six months but would hold a high respect for the SGA regardless of the outcome.
Two other confirmations took place as well.
Regarding allocation, the Senate President, Christopher Miller, noted that there was only $21,000 for funding.
The big decision of the evening was allocating $10,000 to the Department of Campus Recreation. The money would go towards the recto function for the spring semester with an additional three weeks after.
Senator Corrie Watt was hesitant about awarding the department the full amount and did not believe that it would be a financially smart choice.
“I believe we can be fiscally responsible and take away some money,” said Watt.
When asked why the department would not increase their annual budget, it was explained that the funding varies every year. The premise with the recreation center came about 20 years ago based on the assumption thatthe university’s enrollment would continue to grow.
One of the things that would be affected if not funded, are the hours of operations. While the rec would not completely shut down, the hours would be severely modified to accommodate the lack of employees the department has.
Chairman Andy Jean-Baptiste was one of the many on board with giving the full amount to the center.
“The rec is something that students actually use,” said Jean-Baptiste.
Jean-Baptiste brought up the fact that 70 percent of the student body usesthe campus rec, while Senator Maurice Gilbertadded that there were over $40,000 swipes (via rattler card) so far into rec.
After several questions regarding why SGA should fund the full amount to the department, the senate eventually passed the bill to do so.
There were a couple of other special allocations that were then introduced.
The business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi requested $6,000 in order to fund their event to highlight student and alumni entrepreneurs. The money would go towards awards for the entrepreneurs, food, and other miscellaneous items.
The last allocation introduced to the floor came from the Food Science club as they were requesting around $6,000 in order to help fund their trip to the Institute of Food (IFT) conference. The money would assist with registration fees for 12 students, while they would plan to pay for their own plane tickets and hotel rooms.
The meeting lasted roughly over two hours.