ASWSU approves funding for ‘Bangladesh Night’ event
Senate also confirms four new members to election board
Esperonza Mendoza Villa, sophomore architecture major, became one of the four newly elected Election Board Committee members after a long period of debate between members of the Student Senate at the ASWSU meeting on Wednesday evening, at the CUB.
September 25, 2019
The ASWSU Senate is partially funding an event to represent the Bangladesh community and connect it to the WSU population.
The senate approved funding of $3,200 to the Association for Bangladeshi Students and Scholars (ABSS) for its Bangladesh Night 2019. The event will be on Oct. 5 in the CUB Senior Ballroom.
ABSS representative Anika Raisa Khan said they are a newly formed registered student organization with 50 regular members and 20 associate members.
Uncertified senator Monica Chavez said ASWSU’s finance committee debated a week or two before last night’s senate meeting because ABSS asked for $3,500, which was $1,000 more than they asked for last year.
The committee decided $3,200 was a fair amount to keep student ticket prices for the event low, Chavez said.
The senate also confirmed four new members to the ASWSU election board, leaving five more spots open.
Freshmen political science students Sarah Gorrell and Hunter Fanning were unanimously confirmed to the election board. Riley Holloway, a freshman political science student, and Esperanza Mendoza Villa were voted in by the senate.
Many of the discussion points the senate addressed to the election board candidates were focused on improving student voter turnout in the university.
“We have a historically low voter turnout,” said Hannah Martian, college of education senator.
Fanning said one of his ideas was to provide minor and inexpensive incentives like stickers to increase student voter turnout.
”We all like to put stickers on our laptops and Hydro Flasks,” Fanning said.
The senate also passed a bill that clarified senators’ duties during last night’s meeting.
The bylaws were modified so that senators are required to participate in three tabling events of at least one hour per semester.
“This clarifies our duties as senators,” uncertified senator Jocelyn Granados said. “I wanted to make our tabling duties clear.”
The senate approved an amendment to change the ratification of the bill to the spring semester.
Martian said she suggested the amendment because the semester is already several weeks in session.
