Eastern Michigan University’s Student Government approved its budget for Fiscal Year 2016 at the August 15 Summer Summit Senate Meeting in Resolution No. B. Res. 102-01.
The budget of $245,485.00, to be used during the 2015-2016 academic year, was prepared by Evan Schrauben, the Director of Business and Finance. Steven Cole, Student Body President, consulted Schrauben on the budget.
Six line items received budget increases, Student Organization Allocations, Constituent Giveaways, Leadership Development, Advertising, Internal Operations, and Club Halle. Two received a decrease, Constituent Programming and Payroll.
Student Government added DPS Costs to the budget. The following line items where eliminated from the budget: Public Affairs Committee, Student Relations Committee, Rec Extended Hours, Computers Contingency Fund, and Water Bottling Systems.
The FY16 budget will be put on the Student Government website under the “Documents”section within a week.
Judicial Sergeant John McAllister and Cole presented Resolution No. S. Res. 102-01, to amend the Student Government Bylaws.
A Review Commission, met bi-weekly for the past three months to discuss the amendment of the bylaws.
The Review Commission was comprised of Cole, Student Body Vice President Anjali Martin, Speaker of the Senate Kiera Fegan, McAllister, and three Senators, Joshua Starr, Aron Sandler, and Fegan.
Some of the changes fix typographical and grammatical errors. Other changes include amending Senator responsibilities and campaigning rules.
Cole said the changes take out ambiguity in the bylaws.
“We clarified a lot of language to make sure that we don’t have the potential for the internal operation issues that we had last year,”Cole said.
Martin said they are taking out the “red tape” that was prohibiting students from having access to senators and makes the bylaws more easily navigable.
“We made it easier for senators to help students, we made it easier for senators to follow the rules, and we made it easier for the senate as a whole to be more productive and efficient as the year goes on,” Martin said.
Voting on the bylaw amendments was moved to Sep. 22, the next Senator meeting, to give Senators more time to go over the changes, on Cole’s recommendation.
The Senate also heard Standing Committee and Executive reports.
Cole said he thinks Student Government is going to have an “extremely productive year.”
“I think the culture of this senate is one that is excited to work, that understands the responsibility, that appreciates what it is to be a student representative,” he said.
