By
Emily Severson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Budget was down $7,000 , now $1,640 remains
ASUA Sen. Roby Schapira fulfilled what he called a "desperate need for club funding" by reshuffling the organization's funds to eliminate a budget deficit.
Before last night's Associated Students Senate meeting, the budget for club funding budget was at negative $7,142,63. But after taking $9,000 from the Senate, president's, administrative and executive vice presidents' operating budgets, club funding was back up to $1,639.18.
"This funding is vital because club funding affects a broad base of students," Schapira said. "Hopefully this money will cover any funding requests we receive next week, but if we go another $1,000 over I'll be happy because clubs should be receiving this funding."
However, there was some dissent among the Senate that this would cause a budget shortage for other programs.
"I don't think we should just transfer money around," Sen. Matt Bailey said. "If we do that, what is the point of a budget?"
The four motions to transfer the budgets were all approved with a majority vote.
In other business, the Senate passed a resolution to support a military science minor at the University of Arizona. The UA administration has denied the possibility for students to receive a minor in military science because of an Arizona Board of Regents policy.
Bailey said the resolution was an effort to join the branches of Reserve Officers Training Corps at the UA, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.
He also said ROTC members take classes in physics, communication and engineering along with a specific training program which equals to about 35 credits and an extra year or a semester at the university.
Bailey said he planned to forward the resolution to the ROTC branches at NAU and ASU.
During the meeting's call to the audience, D. Roger Etcetra, an independent candidate for Arizona governor in 2002, spoke about the need for ASUA to write a resolution that addresses student safety.
Etcetra said the North Fourth Avenue riots following UA's loss to Duke in the NCAA championship game demonstrated that the student government should pass a resolution to regulate police activities.
"The students have a right to be protected by their government," he said. "They need a place to go for justice when they are wronged."
Etcetra cited the example of UA student Jeff Knepper, who had his left eye surgically removed after being hit in the face with a police bean bag at the riot.
"If the police behave this way and are never punished, the student's lose their power," Etcetra said.
"We condemn the riot but I think it is fair to say the police went too far," Sen. Seth Frantzman said.
He added that ASUA had not heard from students who were concerned about the police actions in the riot.
"If we heard from any students or Jeff Knepper, we would probably try and do something about it but we have not heard anything," Frantzman said.
