At the ASWSU Senate meeting Wednesday night, senators and guest speakers discussed monies raised for the Cougar Health Fund from Giving Tuesday, services and activities fees and Services and Activities Fees Committee funding cuts. The Senate also confirmed a student to the ASWSU Election Board.

Giving Tuesday

ASWSU President Savannah Rogers said Giving Tuesday, the nationally recognized day to promote generosity, raised $24,000 for the Cougar Health Fund.

The original goal was $10,000, she said, and the Board of Regents donated $6,000 of the total amount raised. All the funds raised from Giving Tuesday can be used immediately rather than being placed in an endowment fund.

Rogers said she had several ideas for how the money will be used.

“We want to allow organizations on campus to go through health training so we can support Cougs,” Rogers said.

She also said the fund can be used to conduct a study to get numbers about sexual violence occurrences at WSU because there is no current data specific to WSU.

Services and Activities Fees Committee funding

The Services and Activities Fees Committee approved $68,000 for a new, wheelchair-accessible van for the WSU Access Center to use, Rogers said.

“S&A wanted to make sure the van is good to go and ready for students,” she said.

No other WSU groups received funding from S&A, ASWSU Finance Chair Hannah Martian said. The Election Board requested $6,100, KZUU requested $8,000 for new equipment and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan requested $1,000. All groups were denied by the committee.

The S&A Committee overspent its budget last year by $500,000, ASWSU Vice President Tyler Parchem said. Due to lack of funds, S&A required each campus group to have a 2.5 percent cut on top of existing cuts.

“They are looking at sustainability,” he said. “[The funds have] been depleted because we have been overspending. They over-anticipated how many students we have coming in because all students pay S&A fees.”

There are several umbrella organizations of ASWSU which include the Election Board and Judicial Board that must present their fund requests to the budget council of ASWSU. If approved, the requests are then presented to S&A, Martian said.

In addition to the ASWSU Budget Council, the Senate Finance Committee funds student club and group requests. This year, the committee can approve $58,000 for student groups, and 37 percent has been used so far, she said.

In the past, some groups tried to request money for expenses ASWSU cannot cover, Martian said.

“We are working to make strict regulations for [registered student organizations] because there have been problems in the past of being unclear to groups,” she said. “We want to streamline the process.”

Election Board confirmation

Junior Paige Stinson was confirmed to the ASWSU Election Board at the meeting as well.

“A big part of the Election Board is reaching out to the student body to get them to vote,” Stinson said.

The board is still in need of one more member to become active.