Student Senate approves first funding proposal and reviews new guidelines for future funding requests
By Katie Frost
On Nov. 3, Student Senate held its weekly meeting. In this meeting, student senators reviewed concerns brought forward during the initial free speech period, looked into approving funding to send a student to a conference, opened the opportunity for a senator to attend a separate conference, and reviewed the senate's new outlook on funding proposals moving forward.
At the beginning of the meeting, student senator Lilly Alice ‘30 (Political Science) proposed a solution to the issue of meal points not carrying over at the end of the semester. The proposed solution was for the senate to organize an event where students could buy food with their extra meal points and donate it to better causes, such as a homeless shelter or students in need of food support. While the response across the board was that the Student Senate will look into how a potential new donation process could be implemented, there was also recognition that unused meal points are automatically transferred to the campus Food Hub, which supports students and the community.
The Civic Action Academy Conference is coming up quickly, but unfortunately a senator whose place had already been paid for and reserved is unable to attend. Student Senate discussed the opportunity for another senator to take their place and attend the conference.
In other conference news, the senate voted on its first major funding proposal this week. Suhur Abdi ‘28 (Biochemistry) gave a presentation to the senate proposing funding approval for her to attend the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Students in Seattle, Washington. During the presentation, Abdi explained how attending this conference would provide opportunities to network with researchers across various scientific fields, develop presentation and research skills, and explore graduate schools that could offer new research opportunities. She also explained how important it would be to connect with other students from underrepresented backgrounds in a STEM environment, and how she could bring the experience back to the St. Kate's community. Abdi said she would report “back from my conference to the student senate, talk about who I met, how it was, and then also talk to the bio seminar.” Abdi went on to say that she could create a resource list or a club to help students prepare to apply to research conferences and to encourage them to pursue research opportunities like hers.
The review of this proposal led to updates from the financial affairs committee. Currently, the Student Advancement Fund has approximately $4,000 available for the fall semester, and prior to this funding proposal, no funding had been distributed. Abdi’s funding proposal was for $2,200, and the senate voted to approve $1,800 for her conference. Additionally, a $1,000 funding request recently came through, so Student Senate had to keep that upcoming cost in mind as well. To prevent more difficult decisions regarding the funding proposal, Student Senate is planning to develop a more formal rubric for evaluating future funding requests. In the process, Student Senate would work more closely with other campus offices to identify additional funding opportunities for students, so that the Student Advancement Fund won't have to be the sole funding source for student opportunities such as Abdi’s. They also hope to establish clearer guidelines for passing funding proposals that will benefit individual students as well as the rest of the community.
The next Student Senate meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 10, will feature Dr. Evans as a guest to discuss current issues on campus. All students are welcome to attend and ask questions.
