The finance committee and rules and judiciary committee of Student Congress met Tuesday discuss how upcoming legislation should reform the way student groups are allotted money and appoint new officers to student government.
Student Body President-elect Bradley Opere recommended three officers to be approved by Student Congress — Harry Edwards for student body treasurer, Jared Picot for student body secretary and Wilson Sink as director of state and external affairs.
Sink ran against Opere in the election for student body president. Opere said he recommended Sink because of the strengths he demonstrated throughout his campaign.
“My perspective as I ran throughout the whole campaign was that despite everything, all our differences in platform, I ... respected what Wilson had to bring: his platform and strong points,” he said.
“And I think that having Wilson come in and work with us speaks to us extending a good hand and moving beyond, you know, any issues that happened during the campaign.”
Sink said he felt privileged to be considered to serve the University and looked forward to the opportunity to use what he learned during his campaign.
“Working as the student body president candidate allowed me to develop a lot more nuanced views of what this University means, and to meet with a lot of different leaders on this campus, to listen to their ideas of where this University needs to go,” he said.
The rules and judiciary committee referred all three of Opere’s candidates to be voted on by the full Student Congress after spring break.
The finance committee passed three bills on to the rules and judiciary committee that would reform the way on-campus student groups can receive money from student government.
One bill removes an exception to a rule against using student government money for food for consumption. The next proposes an alternative to the first come, first serve process by which student groups must apply to receive student government money. The last places restrictions on the amount of money a student group can receive for out-of-state conferences.
Priyesh Krishnan, chairperson of the finance committee, said the committee places restrictions on money allotted for out-of-state conferences because the committee places a priority on groups and events occurring on campus.
“We already have priorities, and those priorities include prioritizing things that happen on campus and of access to everybody, so there was already a priority to fund something that was off campus, but there was no specific restriction on how we funded it. And so think the purpose of that bill was to put our priorities into action a little bit,” he said.
Krishman said the food bill passed outright, and the other two bills were referred to the full student congress.
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