The U Board of Trustees will now decide the future of ASUU funding for KUTE, the U’s student radio station.
Senators in the student government passed measures Thursday night to temporarily cut funding for KUTE and change student government election rules regarding the disclosure of campaign expenses and donations.
The trustees must approve the proposals because they call for the U student constitution, Redbook, to be amended.
The senators questioned the bills’ sponsors and debated for more than two hours before eventually passing the measures.
While all the senators indicated they favored cutting $15,000 in funding for KUTE, they disagreed over where the money should be spent. Under the bill that passed, the money will be directed to the executive branch–where it was originally allocated from.
A group of the senators argued that the money should be transferred to the Associated Students of the University of Utah’s general reserve so the Senate could more closely monitor how it is spent.
“We just can’t keep going on the honor system,” said Sen. Piper Morrell, of the College of Nursing.
Other senators supported Student Body President Jake Kirkham’s plans to spend the money on areas including scholarship education, a senior class gift and marketing of ASUU events.
Proponent Shadie Ghaibi, ASUU Senate chairwoman and newly appointed senior class president, said the representatives had been provided with a breakdown of how the money would be spent and should have asked Kirkham about his plans for the money beforehand.
Some senators said they would have liked to see a more specific line-item description of the planned expenditures.
The senators also debated at length about a bill to change ASUU election rules to allow candidates to list expenses and donations from wholesale companies on campaign disclosure forms at a discounted cost. Current rules require candidates to list items at everyday retail price regardless of whether they receive a discount.
Concern arose over what the bill’s sponsors admitted was a “loophole” in one of the proposal’s clauses, as it doesn’t provide a definition for what qualifies as a wholesale company.
The bill passed despite the uncertainty because proponents wanted it to take effect before elections begin in February.
Lorraine Evans, ASUU election registrar, pledged to clarify the dispute in the elections packet, which some senators found inadequate because Redbook would still lack the clarification.