At the Student Association meeting Monday night, the Assembly elected a student representative for the Board of Trustees, voted on budget appeals and unanimously passed a bill supporting Syracuse University Outing Club’s remaining a student organization.

SUOC, a student organization of 70 years, has been pressured by administrators to become a club sport under Recreation Services against the will of the organization’s members. Megan Jonas, former SUOC budget chair, argued the bill should be passed to send a message to the school’s administrators that the students do not support converting SUOC. About 30 SUOC members were in attendance for the meeting. Thirteen Assembly members were in attendance for the meeting.

‘This sort of thing is not okay with the student body,’ Jonas said. ‘It’s anti-democratic.’

The bill was proposed at SA’s April 25 meeting but was delayed because the student organization was scheduled to meet with administrators April 26, and several Assembly members said they wanted to wait to hear the administration’s perspective at the meeting.

SUOC, SA and Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning and Recreation Services representative met April 26 to debate the club’s role as a student organization.

During the meeting last Tuesday, Dean of Students Roy Baker told the SUOC representatives they would become a club sport, said incoming SUOC President Bryan Moll.

‘I do not trust student leaders; it is my job to not trust student leaders,’ said Assembly member Patrick Tomeny, reading Baker’s comments from the meeting’s minutes.

Baker was not in attendance for the meeting.

It is currently uncertain if Recreation Services would be able to fully fund SUOC, Jonas said.

‘We keep asking them what the issues are and they keep monkeying us around,’ Jonas said.

Recreation Services wants SUOC to become a club sport because it has all of the components of a club sport, Director of Recreation Services Joe Lore said prior to the Assembly meeting.

‘I don’t know why SUOC should be treated any different,’ Lore said. ‘A club sport is a campus group that provides recreation, competition and/or instruction in sport-related activities.’

During the meeting, SA President Travis Mason proposed another option, that SUOC remain a student organization and have an advisor from Recreation Services appointed to the organization.

‘That’s a win-win scenario,’ Mason said.

While the Assembly passed the SUOC bill unanimously, it failed a bill allocating zero dollars to Syracuse University Ambulance in a vote of three to 10.

‘What we’re saying is to find funding from the university,’ Comptroller Andrew Urankar said prior to the bill’s failure. ‘It’s not something that fits in with the rest of the student activity fee.’

Tomeny argued against the budget recommendation during the meeting.

‘Just because SU ambulance is different, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t deserve money from the appeals process,’ Tomeny said.

Three SUA representatives were in attendance for the meeting and argued against the bill’s passage.

‘It’s a community service … that’s how SUA meets SA’s mission as well,’ said Jared Birnbaum, vice president of SUA.

The Assembly allocated $41,519.35 from appeals funding to student organizations that requested additional funds from the student fee than was allocated to them during the ordinary budgeting process. Student organizations requested a total of $79,126.33 from the appeals process.

All appeals recommendations were packaged to be voted on together, except for recommendations for SUA, Black Artists League, Jerk Magazine and the Interfraternity Council. The packaged budget bills passed 6 in favor to 5 against and 2 abstentions, Parliamentarian Joan Gabel and Assembly member Ryan Kelly.

The Assembly passed a bill allocating $12,431.34 to Jerk Magazine, which had requested $18,257.12 from the appeals process.

The Assembly also elected by secret ballot John Brenner, a junior majoring in finance and political science, to become a student representative to the Board of Trustees.

Brenner was attempted and failed to be elected at the Assembly meeting April 25, when he lost through a secret ballot in a 9-5 vote. Although Brenner won a majority, Board of Trustees student representatives require a two-thirds majority, Mason said.

Brenner was criticized at the April 25 Assembly meeting for not presenting a concrete platform. At Monday’s Assembly meeting, Brenner announced he was in favor of making the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs an undergraduate school, adding an indoor track to Archbold Gymnasium and adding a 3,000 to 5,000 capacity performing arts center.

The Assembly also unanimously passed a bill expressing SA’s support of allowing opposite sex roommates in residence halls. The bill was proposed because homosexual residents can at times feel uncomfortable living with same-sex roommates, said Charles Babecki, an author of the bill.

‘The policy of SU is a little bit discriminatory,’ Babecki said.

The bill also supported allowing heterosexual couples to live together because homosexual couples are allowed to live with one another under the current housing system, Babecki said. Brothers and sisters attending the university together would also be allowed to live together under the bill’s proposition.

‘This is the issue of all students,’ Babecki said.

In other SA news, parliamentarian Joan Gabel announced that she will resign from her position because she needs to get a job to pay for housing.

Published on May 2, 2005 at 12:00 pm