The meeting began as the executive board reviewed the budget. The total amount in contingency is $33,354.60. This does not reflect the $10,000 the Student Government Association plans to give to MEPD next semester.

Afterward, the senate spoke about the recent incident in Blackstone and processed their feelings and views regarding the event, considering how to respond as individual students.

Proposals

Vice president of Biola Symphonic Winds and senior music education major Sierra Allen and senior biblical studies major Anna Petrizzi are co-directors of the POPS! Concert this year. They proposed for $700 for 70 students to attend the event. They have struggled with low attendance in past years, but are unable to lower ticket prices due to fees incurred in creating the event that will occur on May 7 at 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $10 for students and alumni and $15 for general admission and faculty.

Katlin Puchalski, Student Orientation Services Intern and senior communication studies major, proposed for $3,581.50 to purchase 1,300 planners for incoming students. SGA has funded this in the past and the planners are valuable for new students because they include a list of resources in the Biola community.

Tamara Wu, freshman communication studies and sociology major, proposed $530 on behalf of Biola Broken for printing costs of educational materials about coping skills and issue management. The materials are for individuals attending weekly workshops or visiting an info booth manned for four hours weekly at highly trafficked areas on campus.

PRSSA co-director of events and sophomore public relations majors Alisa Ohara and Victoria Leigh Ward, executive vice president of PRSSA, proposed for $330 for a Dodger’s fundraiser. The funding would allow for the purchase of 30 tickets at $11 each, that PRSSA would then sell for $20, the profits of which would be applied toward the PRSSA chapter.

Senior vice president of SGA Drew Mattocks proposed for SGA Constitutional Amendment F, which would add Article VI.7.K and VI.7.L. These say that an SGA member who proposes legislature or is part of a planning committee may not be present during the vote of said proposal and their vote will be counted as an abstention. It has been tradition for the member proposing to leave the room during the vote, but Mattocks proposed to make this necessary for future senators.

Generally, the senate disagreed with the second half of the proposal, that members of the planning committee must abstain. For example, the proposal passed last week for the SUB renovations was created by a committee of five members. Each vote for legislature requires 10 of the 15 voting members, or two-thirds, which means the vote would not have occurred since one senator was not present at the meeting and five would have abstained. Mattocks expressed the amendment’s intent to take power away from committees that could easily convince others to pass a proposal regardless of its merit. Senators expressed concern that it would prevent them from best representing their constituents if they were unable to vote.

Voting for this week’s proposal will occur at next week’s meeting on April 28.