USG inaugurates 143rd senate
In the final meeting of the 142nd Undergraduate Student Government senate, departing president Hannah Woodworth and chief financial officer Brian Stowe gave their fiscal report of the year and departing directors passed the torch into the hands of the 143rd senate.
Woodworth and Stowe’s presentation addressed the comparisons between the 141st and 142nd senate’s budget allocations. Ninety-eight percent of the Recognized Student Organization budget was used as compared to 64% the previous year, Woodworth said, reiterating a point from her State of USG speech April 18.
Woodworth and Stowe said major USG initiatives, including RestSC (which soft-launched Tuesday at the University Religious Center), the restaurant crawl and medical supply vending machines received their funding from the $35,000 legislative fund, which was almost completely exhausted by the end of the school year.
“[The legislative fund] was put specifically towards projects that benefited students right here, right now,” Woodworth said.
Stowe also said the largest increases in RSO spending, compared with the previous administration, was toward academic research travel and professional conference registration.
“These two things are generally more expensive than social events,” Stowe said. “Having USG as a resource to get these things done is very good.”
The senate also addressed an issue that had plagued members since February: Funding allocations.
Sponsored by departing senators William Lee and Aidan Feighery, Senate Bill 142-53 aims to amend the allocations committee guidelines to create further transparency for funding RSOs through displaying an approximate percentage of the remaining funds left on the student government’s page, updated monthly.
Additionally, the bill states that the funding chair will disclose what types of events were funded to “serve as examples” for what kinds of events can receive funding from USG.
“At the bare minimum, the funding transparency guidelines will ensure that all students will be aware [of funding movements] on the USG website,” Lee said. “I trust with these new guidelines that the incoming administration will do their best.”
The outgoing senate’s final action was to confirm the appointments of the new directors and assistant directors across every department. While appointing the directors of the judicial branch, new chief justice Nivea Krishnan addressed the logistics of implementing ranked-choice voting, which will be implemented in next year’s USG elections, which involve working with the IT provost.
“The earlier we can establish that rapport … the sooner we can lay out the scope of the project from a technical lens,” Krishnan said. “We’re actually really behind the curve when it comes to ranked-choice.”
Ranked-choice voting was previously a point of contention from this year’s USG election, addressed in the omnibus bill SB 142-47 that was voted on in the senate meeting March 27.
After their inauguration, president Divya Jakatdar and vice president Michelle Lu successfully passed their first bill: A short piece of legislation adopting the previous administration’s revised office manual, addressing slight grammar changes in several areas.