USS wants to remove BUS and Inter-Greek Programming Board

Breanne George

The first draft of the Undergraduate Student Senate’s proposed changes for the Allocations Committee guidelines recommends removing permanent seats held by Black United Students and the Inter-Greek Programming Board.

At yesterday’s meeting, Kevin Folk, senator for business and finance, read aloud the proposed changes made by the USS and Allocation Committee members at previous meetings. The Allocation’s Ad Hoc committee put the changes together.

A major recommendation includes the removal of two permanent seats held by BUS and the Inter-Greek Programming Board on the Allocation’s Committee. Instead of five at-large members, there would be seven at-large members. Currently, the USS, All-Campus Programming Board, Inter-Greek Programming Board and Black United Students have permanent seats.

Since the USS and ACPB are internal organizations, the proposed change was made to ensure all student organizations have an equal opportunity to be represented on the committee.

Executive Director Bill Ross said he hopes BUS attends next week’s USS meeting to hear what they have to say about losing their permanent seat.

“If they attend our meeting, I would like to recognize them and ask them what their opinion on it would be,” he said.

Another proposed change involved funding eligibility requirements. The guidelines currently say that allocations can only be used for programs that directly benefit all students. The proposed change is to remove the word “all” from the sentence to not hinder programs that could benefit a large portion of the undergraduate student body such as programs proposed by BUS and PRIDE!Kent.

Another recommendation involves the allocation request process. The guidelines would clarify that only undergraduate members of student organizations can present requests to the Allocations Committee.

Folk said this recommendation was proposed so advisers would not be doing the bulk of the presentations.

The senators will have a final chance to debate the guidelines prior to voting for the proposed changes at next week’s meeting. A majority vote is required for the changes to occur.

“I do foresee that they will be approved,” Ross said.

Contact student politics reporter Breanne George at [email protected].