The ASWSU Senate approved a resolution to support gender-neutral housing in McCroskey Hall and future expansion, if necessary, to accommodate individuals. The finance chair gave a report on its current budget situation.

Finance committee budget

ASWSU Senator and Finance Chair Hannah Martian said the finance committee overspent its budget by $1,600.

The budget for programming was $64,000. The finance and external committees split that money, Martian said.

“We decided among ourselves that $58,000 would go for Crimson and Gray for RSO’s,” she said. “Finance is in charge of that, and the other $6,000 would go to external for tabling events, joint city council and the president’s dinner.”

Martian said the external committee had $5,200 left from their budget, so the finance committee used $2,000 from that fund to account for the finance committee overspending.

The overspent budget was caused by an event last year that was unaccounted for in the budget calculations until this fiscal year, she said. Martian also forgot to add a different budget request, which contributed to the overspent budget.

The remaining $400 was used to fund requests from Esports and Gaming at WSU and the Japanese Student Association, Martian said.

“That was just an oversight by me,” Martian said. “Like I said, we had 91 funding requests this year and 53 approvals, and I have to keep track of them all amongst all my other responsibilities.”

She said ASWSU Vice President Tyler Parchem was the first student to keep track of funding requests last year. It was previously done by an advisor who had finance training and knew how to work the system.

Martian said she is working with Lindsay Schilperoort, ASWSU pro tempore to ensure this situation does not happen again. Martian said she would like to receive feedback from the ASWSU advisor, Parchem and Schilperoort to find the most effective budget system.

Resolution

A resolution in support of gender-neutral housing at WSU was approved by the Senate. It called for more direct and open lines of communication from Housing and Residence Life regarding gender-neutral housing. The resolution also calls for increased LQBTQ programming.

The resolution was authored by delegates Monica Chavez and Serena Rex and Senator Hannah Martian.

Chavez said she feels there are resources for LGBTQ students and employees but the discussion is isolated and is not campus wide.

“That’s something that I would definitely like to see here on campus so that way students would feel a lot more safe or a lot more willing to dorm with other students or increase that floor in McCroskey Hall,” Chavez said.

Rex said she hopes a campus-wide discussion would make people more aware. She said she would also like to see programs and events posted in dorms to make individuals feel more welcomed.

Martian said some people do not know about the available housing in McCroskey Hall. The point of the resolution is to advertise that it is available and there is a possibility for expansion if needed.