ASU's spring spending

The Associated Student Union held its first meeting of the spring semester on Tuesday.

By Natalie Metcalf, Valley Life Editor

In the first ASU meeting of the Spring semester on Tuesday, the executive board passed eight finance motions, allocating $17,550 toward student events.

Of the eight motions passed, six focused on ASU student events. These include $9,000 allocated for ethnic and cultural events, $3,000 earmarked for ASU board member events, $250 for queer gamers night, $1,800 for club day rentals, $2,000 for leadership workshop completion gift and $1,500 for graduation sashes. This semester, the student union has a spending budget of $318, 465. Two of the agenda items dealt with a transfer of already allocated funds and an event name change.

ASU board member events for $3,000 was requested by Monica Flores, the student union’s advisor and counselor. The funds will be allocated towards future events with guest speakers who are hired under contract with the ASU.

“Having these funds set aside will help board members with their event planning, as funds will already be available,” said ASU President Ani Ramazyan. “Students will benefit from these events by building great college memories.”

Commissioner of Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Erik Portillo submitted a budget request for $9,000. According to the budget request, the purpose of the funds is to have an accessible budget for future student events relating to ethnic and cultural topics. The money will be used towards food, drinks, transportation and admissions expenses for currently planned events.

“I wouldn’t have to go through the whole process of submitting a budget request, so it will be quicker to have those collaborations,” said Portillo, about collaborating with Umoja Black Scholars and the Mosaic Village on campus.

The Women’s Resource Fair, in coordination with Women’s History Month, was on the list of events on the budget request. But Portillo canceled the event because of another event organized by Natalie Guerrero, the coordinator and counselor of the Rainbow Pride Center, called Spring Connect. During the meeting, the Spring Connect budget request for $7,200 was postponed until the next meeting.

Queer gamers night for $250 was approved and requested by Guerrero. The money will be allocated towards pizzas for the event. This will be a collaboration between ASU and the Mosaic Village. The event is planned for May.

The Memorial Day display was passed and amended from $8,540 to $5,000 in the finance committee meeting then rejected in the Executive Council Meeting. The board suggested the Veterans Resource Center use funds from their club account. The Veterans Club has $7,000 in its club budget. Their second motion, Veteran Orientation for $450, was also requested by Krixa Lim, the head coordinator of The Veterans Resource Center.

“I think this [Memorial Day display] is still too big of an event,” said ASU Treasurer Diego Enriquez. “This is not going to be the outcome they expect.”

Enriquez suggested the board deny the request and the Veterans Resource Center return with a smaller budget request.