During its annual meeting on Sunday to hear proposals and make decisions on the 2017-2018 budget, the ASWSU Budget Council denied a request from the International Student Council (ISC) for a $5,650 increase.

Within the ISC’s budget proposal, they had internally reallocated funds, taking money away from several line items and adding the money to their two biggest annual events, International Education Week and Party and Art in the Park. The ISC internally increased the budget for International Education Week from $3,471 to $10,000.

Many senators expressed their frustration with the ISC’s budget, saying it was poorly designed and they could not see why the council needed so much more money for International Education Week.

Finance Chair Sen. Josue Zuniga said he had to help ISC President Kevin Lindquist and the ISC Treasurer to create their PowerPoint the night before the Budget Council meeting.

“They should prove they can manage their budget before we give them more money,” Sen. Derrick Wallace said.

Sen. Matthew Morrow said the ISC’s budget process would become easier next year because they would not be dealing with the same administration.

Lindquist has been recommended for impeachment by the ASWSU Judicial Board after a subversion of the constitution, where he fired an employee without approval. The Senate’s discussion of Lindquist’s possible impeachment was tabled before winter break and has not been brought up during a meeting since.

ASWSU Pro Tempore Garvin Price said that last year they approved every budget increase. He said there was no limit of funds that they could take to S&A but that each senator and representative should be able to tell their constituents exactly why the Budget Council ruled on every proposal.

The Budget Council meeting is the first step in a three-step process to approve the ASWSU Academic Service and Activities Fee Allocation recommendation. ASWSU organizations first propose their individual budgets to the council. The council then makes decisions to approve these budgets. The collective budget is then proposed to the Services and Activities committee (S&A) and then the Board of Regents.

Organizations must give solid reasons if they are requesting to increase their budgets and show the council exactly what they intend to use the money for.

Of the 21 organizations that presented to the council, 10 requested a $0 increase in their budget, one requested a decrease in their budget and 10 requested increases.

The largest requested increase came from WSU Performing Arts. They requested $6,000, which the council granted.

The organization LandEscapes requested a $0 increase but was the only organization to have its budget decreased by the Senate. The senators discussed the fact that the organization had carry forward for several years in a row.

Carry forward is when an organization does not spend its entire budget and has money left over at the end of the year. Depending on the organization, if this money is not used, then it will either carry over to the next year or it will go back into the greater budget.

LandEscapes is one of the organizations that gets to keep its money at the end of the year, and last year it had a $5,663 carry forward. The Senate agreed to cut its budget by $3,000.

This cut, combined with the $710 decrease requested by Student Legal Services, mostly made up for the $4,000 increase the Senate approved for the Student Veteran Committee (SVC) budget. The SVC requested this money for its Military Ball and for guest speaker fees.

The full budget to be presented to S&A will be roughly $800,000. This would be about an $11,000 increase from the 2016-2017 budget.