Undergraduate Student Government’s (USG) College Council (CC) reintroduced an act to provide non-RSO student groups access to Student Center spaces at its first meeting of the year on Monday.
Student Center spaces—which includes rooms in Reynolds Club, Ida Noyes Hall, and Bartlett Commons—are currently only reservable by RSOs, but not by other student groups not recognized by the University. The proposed act would allow non-RSO student organizations to register for these spaces through USG, using USG’s RSO designation.
“This would allow student groups that want to become RSOs the opportunity to grow membership and have a space to immediately do the functions that their student group requires of them,” Student Government Finance Committee Chair Gavin Wynn said.
The same motion was introduced in March of the previous academic year, but was ultimately not passed due to concerns over the coordination required for USG to reserve Student Centers for non-registered student groups. There were also concerns that USG would be liable for damages to spaces that were caused by other organizations, which would potentially lead to USG losing the ability to reserve spaces altogether.
“This resolution was not passed last year because of several concerns we had with USG bypassing University policy to, essentially, proxy book rooms for individuals or groups that are not recognized,” Vice President of Student Organizations Fred Lee said. “If this does get passed next week, I will personally ask [USG President] Kevin [Guo] to take actions.”
Because a motion cannot be passed on the same day that it is introduced, the act cannot be voted on or approved until next week.
CC also voted to correct annual allocation errors for five RSOs that were made last year. According to Lee, the RSOs in question did not receive enough funding under the guidelines that were applied to all RSOs last year due to calculation errors.
In May of last academic year, the Student Government Finance Committee applied progressive cuts to all RSOs. According to Lee, four RSOs incorrectly received budget cuts that fell below the funding floor set by these allocation rules.
The Black Student Fellowship, Paul Douglas Institute, United Against Inequities in Disease, and International Leadership Council—each of which initially received less than $1,600 as a result of the error—will now have corrected budgets of $2,250 each.
The Phoenix Sustainability Initiative received an additional $303 as a result of one of its annual events not being factored into its initial budget allocation, bringing its total budget to $3,834.
CC also amended its election codes by unanimous vote in advance of first-year CC representative elections this November. The amended codes explicitly clarify that members cannot campaign while students are in the process of voting. The codes also clarify that bulk mailing counts as a form of campaigning and is prohibited—as all forms of campaigning are—before election petitions become available.
Fourth-year Stone Grayson was confirmed unanimously as a member of the Election and Rules Committee at the meeting, which runs USG elections and manages electoral disputes.
The amended code also requires candidates running for Chief Judge of the Judicial Council to acquire 100 signatures from students in order for their names to appear on the ballot, the same number required for Liaison and Vice President positions.
College Council holds weekly public meetings in Stuart Hall 104 on Mondays at 7 p.m.
