By Elizabeth Ballinger
The Associate Student Government (ASG) approved funding for a diversity workshop to be held during Martin Luther King Week in February at their recent Nov. 6 Board of Directors meeting.
The workshop, an idea presented by vice president of Equity and Pluralism Yunita Beatrix Oesman, will be fully funded by the ASG. The cost of $600 will pay for the conductor of the program, Eric Davis, a diversity educator from Edmond Community College. Oesman said this cost was arrived at after Davis offered to give BCC a discount. An additional $37.50 was agreed upon for advertising costs.
The motion to approve the funding passed 6-0-0.
“A fully ASG-sponsored diversity event,” said Burke Coluqoun, emerging technology and entrepreneurial representative, “is a good opportunity.”
Members of the board rejected 0-5-1 a motion presented by the Circle K International Club for $255 in ASG funds, from their 1910 clubs and events account, for an out-of-state club convention. The club, said Circle K vice president Eric Ngayen, learned of the convention at the beginning of the quarter, but waited until a week before the convention to ask for funding.
“I advised last year’s Circle K club to start planning ahead,” said Amanda Alva, ASG President. In addition to insufficient time, Alva said a required event itinerary was also missing from the club’s request package. “If it’s approved, it will set a precedent that unpreparedness and incomplete project plans are acceptable.”
The club was advised by Colquhoun to raise their own funding should they decide to go, and to prepare via fundraisers and early request for ASG funding if they plan to attend the next Circle K convention in January. Alva said she’d like to see the club accomplish more of their community service goals before asking for student funds to help them celebrate their achievements.
Approval of the ASG Legislative Committee’s annual agenda was tabled due to violations of by-laws in this year’s agenda. Each year, the Legislative Committee is required to survey 750 students, via interview, email, printed survey, or other mechanism, to determine what student issues they’d like to see taken to the state government. The results of these surveys determine what changes the two-person Legislative Committee will advocate for when they represent the student body in Olympia.
This year, an agenda was written based on last year’s surveys, instead of new results being found by a Legislative Steering Committee.
“They wrote up a good agenda,” said Chief Justice John Daniel of the committee. “They just didn’t understand all the fine print.”
Rather than adopting the flawed agenda, the committee was asked by Daniel to return after new data and a new document have been devleoped in compliance with the by-laws on this and other issues.
The current student government budget, presented to the board by Vice-President of Finance and Communication Vicki Waiking Ma, contains $18,268 for the ASG account, $104,000 for the reserve account, $4,843 for the clubs and event account, and $16,317 for the cultural clubs account.