StuCo Considers Senior Class Budget Proposal

Student Council on Tuesday focused on the senior class’ budget proposal, asking the Council to contribute $2000 for the senior class’ goal to compile and print approximately a hundred senior meditations.The budget proposal was presented by Senior Class President Alex Yang.  During his presentation, Yang said that the book of meditations would be a gift to the senior class and would be sold to others.The Council voted on whether to allot the requested $2000 and passed the proposal, on the condition that Yang’s proposal was constitutionally valid. However, Council decided to postpone the decision whether to allot the requested $2000 to next week’s meeting.  The reason for this delay was because of uncertainty whether this allocation of funds would be a legal use of StuCo funds, Student Council President Max Freedman said.“We have to confirm it is a legal use of StuCo funds; historically we couldn't fund classes. People are worried of setting the precedent that StuCo will allocate large chunks of money on a yearly basis for something like this if the next senior class comes forward,” Freedman said. “Ultimately, the allocation was made contingent on it being permissible, and we don't yet know if it is.”If Yang’s proposal is approved next week, the money will mostly come from the Newman Fund, which can only be spent on projects that “benefit the entire body,” upper TJ Hodges said.  “Since Alex's proposal is for the senior class, we may not be legally allowed to spend money on a class-specific proposal from a fund that has conflicting guidelines,” he said. “Max will be meeting with the accounting office to check the legality of funding said proposal.”Council members had mixed feelings on this proposal.  Some were optimistic, including Hodges.  “Personally, I think the idea is a great one,” Hodges said. “I would have been a little more hesitant to support it in the beginning of the year, but Council has been very conservative with its spending, and it doesn't reflect well if we don't spend the money that is allocated to us over the course of an entire year. However, I also agree that it should not, and cannot, be a yearly contribution to every senior class.”Some council members, however, were hesitant on spending such a large sum of money on one proposal, and others were concerned with whether Council was fulfilling its duty to the school by only supporting one class, according to Hodges.Alice Ju, Student Council Secretary, said that Council was legally not allowed to fund the proposal.  Ju thus suggested that Yang and the senior class look for other funds or amend the proposal so that all people, seniors or not, would have to pay for the book, so that payment would be equal for all students who wanted to receive the book.