In the coming weeks, Associated Students will be implementing a plan to restructure the procedure for proposals this semester.
Junior Janine Marderian, AS senior vice president, said this plan began in early May after the senate began to notice problems with matching approved proposals with contingency, which is money taken from student fees that AS distributes throughout the semester for student projects, events, or clubs.
Proposals heard only twice a semester
Instead of hearing proposals every week, the new plan allows proposals to be heard by AS only twice a semester, in two-week increments. The first round is slated for two days of submissions on Sept. 27 and will continue on Oct. 4. Deliberation on proposals will take place in the weeks following, and a second round will take place roughly one month after the first.
“The objective is to see all of the proposals at once so that we can make better, informed decisions and not have to guess about what’s coming up,” Marderian said.
Up until now, the standard procedure was that students would submit their proposals by the Friday before the next week’s senate meeting, where it would be considered by the senators and discussed over the course of the week with residents. Proposals were accepted all semester, but as the months progressed, the AS contingency grew smaller, as money was approved to fund different projects.
Tracking finances will be easier
Under the new system, however, AS should not have to restrain themselves from passing good proposals just to ensure that they would have money later.
According to senior Sam Singery, the vice president of finance, technology and human resources, restructuring the proposal system will make keeping track of the finances a little easier. More importantly, it will give students who are hoping to receive funding an equal chance at securing money from AS.
“Basically, financially, all that really changes is that it levels the playing field and gives everyone equal chance to get student money out of contingency, because in the past, it was kind of first-come, first-served,” Singery said.
Some exceptions to new proposal rule
However, there will be exceptions for the twice-a-semester rule for those who need it. Some members of AS may need to propose on other weeks, especially when events like Punk ‘N’ Pie often entail last minute changes.
“Because it’s a time sensitive thing within AS, we need to let them come in at other times. But for the majority of our projects, they’re outside of AS, and we want to look at those all at once,” Marderian said.
System allows long-term planning, better for clubs
Marderian, who served as a Sigma senator last year, said being unable to support good project proposals, especially towards the end of spring semester, left the entire senate feeling frustrated because they were unable to plan according to what was coming in the weeks ahead. Hearing the majority of the proposals at one time should help avoid last year’s problem.
“[The senators] were voting week to week, based on what they saw, and making good decisions. But it just created a situation at the end of the semester where we couldn’t do what we wanted to do and fund those student projects,” Marderian said. “At one point, there were five proposals, and we wanted to pass four of them, but we had to give each of them a little fraction of what they asked for, just because there was nothing left.”
Sophomore Kyle Schalin, the president of the newly-formed Biola Fencing Friends club, expressed similar thoughts as Singery and is optimistic about the new proposal system.
“It seems like it’s an even playing field for everybody,” said Schalin. “Like if you all get it in at the same time, then they’ll be able to weigh all the clubs together at once.”
Schalin, who will be submitting a proposal for his club in the first round, also thought the proposal restructuring will be more practical for clubs.
“It means I only have to get it together once, they only have to listen to me once, and that way people have better planning — more long-term throughout the year,” Schalin said. “Just being able to submit this and do this fewer times is obviously more efficient for everybody.”
Trial period for new system
The new system will be evaluated through a testing period this semester. The system’s effectiveness will be reevaluated at the end of the semester.
AS plans to heavily advertise the change in the proposal system by the end of this coming week. They will email all the departments to notify them of the change.
Ultimately, Marderian hopes this new system will help better steward student contingency, as well as help senators look at all the proposals more fairly in the context of the other proposals. She hopes it will provide more time for discussion and feedback from residents.
“Hopefully, it will be more fair to students and it’ll be a better use of their money,” Marderian said.
