Represenatatives of various De Anza College programs came to pay their respects and plead their cases to the DASB senate Feb. 8 before the senate decided on the final 2012-13 budget allocations.

More than 20 people, many with colorful signs, showed up to support the Euphrat Museum of Art. The finance committee originally allocated the museum $3,000, but after debate the senate agreed to raise funding to $12,000.

Director of arts & schools at the Euphrat Diana Argabrite spoke in front of the senate to plead for additional funding. Besides getting a chance to have their art on display, she said students gain experience by being involved in the design and curating of exhibitions.

Argabrite said the original allocation would only have allowed an end of the year student art show. She said she was thrilled the senate approved an additional $9,000 and that it will allow the Euphrat to have fall and winter exhibitions as well as other special events.

“I’m thankful, grateful,” Argabrite said. “It’s really important that everybody understand that arts is academics, it’s not separate.”

The Diversity Leadership Training Program saw its funding cut to $6,200, a $2,800 decrease from 2011-12. The DLTP puts on Campus Camp Wellstone, an off-campus retreat where students are trained in activism.

Director of DLTP and De Anza instructor Nicky Gonzalez Yuen said De Anza has a reputation for training “kick-ass student activist leaders.”

“When you cut training programs like this, you cut at the core of who we are as an institution,” Yuen told senators.

The senate considered allocating an extra $2,000 for DLTP, with several senators speaking in support of the added funding. Mustafa Arshad and Christine Yu both argued that Camp Wellstone fostered student activism, a goal of the DASB. Senator Kenneth Perng, a former attendee of Camp Wellstone, said he enjoyed the program but felt he could have had the same experience if it was held on-campus, which would reduce costs. Student trustee Emily Kinner noted DASB had previously stated that off-site retreats were more effective.

The final vote for the increase in funding was 11 for and eight against, failing to get the two-thirds majority needed to approve the extra money.

Yuen said he was disappointed that with a budget of over $1 million the DASB couldn’t find an additional $3,000 to keep DLTP funding level. Later in the meeting, after offering practical advice related to organizing a protest, he told the senate they were still “on the same team.”

“I don’t hold it against these people,” he said. “There’s nothing they’re funding that I’d say ‘oh, cut that.'”

DLTP event coordinator and second year De Anza student Alysa Cisneros also testified before the senate, calling Camp Wellstone the best training she had ever received. Afterwards she expressed frustration, saying the DASB favored funding its own off-site leadership training program, available only to senators, while Camp Wellstone is open to any student.

“They’re prioritizing their own programs over that of the student population,” Cisneros said.

Several budget items were tabled for next week.

Chair of student rights and services Meera Suresh expressed disappointment that several members of the ad-hoc committee formed to support Occupy for Education at De Anza failed to show up for the previous night’s general assembly. She reminded senators the motivation to form the committee was to change the view that the senate was not involved enough with the Occupy protest.

The senate passed a request for $2,100 to pay for overnight campus security for Occupy. This was in addition to $3,500 approved Feb. 1 to provide buses for transporting students to the March in March, a protest in Sacramento organized by community college student activists.

Suresh urged the senate to get the word out about the march and raise their visibility among students.

“We need to remind them who we are,” she said.

The senate voted on a recreational activity that will be part of their winter retreat. The choices were San Francisco, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Sky High Sports (a trampoline gym), or laser tag. San Francisco won, with laser tag being a backup in case of rain.

Kenneth Perng announced he was resigning from the position of director of office and technology because of senators’ failure to clean up after themselves.

“People treat me like a janitor,” he said.

Perng said he had heard a rumor that some other senators were planning on resigning, but delaying doing so in order to keep their priority registration.

“That is complete academic dishonesty,” he said. “That is so not right in any way, shape or form morally, and I would be against that.”