By Valerie Gauman Lucas
Tuesday night’s Student Government Association (SGA) meeting, which lasted for nine plus hours, marked the conclusion to Budget Weekend. The meeting was delayed for roughly two hours, in order to address SGA presidential candidate Pete DiSilvio’s removal from SGA and thereby his removal from the election as it stood at the start of the meeting.
Once DiSilvio’s appeal was granted and the senate moved onto the appropriations portion of the night’s business, they were far behind their 6:30 p.m. scheduled start time. Each club was granted five minutes to plead their case and appeal for more money.
Generally, if additional funds were granted they came out of the SGA contingency which is derived from all University student activities fund. “We only had 600,000 dollars to give,” said SGA Comptroller Julia Hisayi, a senior finance major. Clubs requested $1.7 million total in funds.
However, the option exists to grant clubs funds from the SGA budget which is not recommended or another club who already has funds.
Progressive Students Union (PSU) stood apart from the rest, through its gaining of $1,000 extra, not from the contingency, but rather $500 from the College Republicans’ club budget, and then $500 from the College Democrats’ club budget donated by the respective vice presidents on behalf of their clubs.
Isabelle Goodman, a sophomore sociology major and president of PSU responded to the announcement by saying, “I’m actually very thrilled with the money we got tonight, especially knowing that it came from the College Republicans and the College Democrats. It’s a show of great respect, as we are not a politically affiliated organization, but an organization that encourages civic engagement on campus. I really genuinely appreciate the respect they’ve given us.”
Not everyone was so happy leaving the meeting, Hofstra Concerts did not receive the amount that they requested, which could potentially impact the concerts available to the University in the fall.
Many students were also upset by the delay. “I’m disappointed in the waiting time. We’re three hours behind and we’re all getting frustrated, said Rebecca Astheimer, a freshman film major and representative of Haha Hofstra “At least they have hummus.”