DASB Senate cuts club funding

Facing dwindling revenues, the DASB Senate voted during a long and contentious meeting to decrease the Inter Club Council’s allocation by 3.5 percent for 2016-2017 while nearly doubling the Equity Office’s allocation.

Most other programs were funded at the same level as this year.

The DASB Senate had $70,000 less to allocate this year than last year because of decreased enrollment and increased competition to the lucrative De Anza Flea Market, said senator Naeema Kaleem, chair of the finance committee, at the Feb. 24 meeting.

It took three meetings for the DASB Senate to go over, revise and approve the budget, which still needs a second vote before it officially passes.

The meetings did not run smoothly, with many disagreements and requests for senators to stop having side conversations. Numerous senators spent the meetings watching videos on their laptops and doing homework.

The finance committee originally recommended that the DASB Senate cut ICC’s allocation by $5,000, in part because ICC had more than $4,000 remaining at the end of the 2014-2015 year.

“It’s better that a program gets something than nothing,” senator Thao Le said.

Hundreds of students signed a petition asking the DASB Senate to reconsider the finance committee’s recommendation.

Kaleem criticized the petition, titled “Urge DASB to reconsider the $6,000 budget cut on the Inter Club Council,” because her committee recommended a $5,000, not $6,000, cut from what ICC was allocated for 2015-2016.

Tommy Lee, chair of finance for ICC, said that the remaining balance from the 2014-2015 year could have been due to previous ICC officers not helping clubs access money.

ICC also recently changed their code, which in part allows clubs to request up to $1,000 per event (up from $800). The raised ceilings would help clubs spend more money and avoid end-of-the-year balances, Lee said.

ICC used to receive more than $12,000 for club allocations even though there were fewer clubs, said La Donna Yumori-Kaku, ICC advisor.

De Anza currently has 75 clubs and will receive only $8,000 for club allocations next year.

“This seems like a very large drop,” Yumori-Kaki said.

Senator Ruiqi Mankin advised the Senate against cutting ICC’s allocation, adding that clubs make De Anza colorful. She voted against an amendment to decrease ICC’s allocation by an additional $500, which eventually passed.

The DASB Senate ultimately approved a $49,520 allocation to ICC, including $8,000 devoted to club allocations. This is a 3.5 percent reduction from the 2015-2016 budget.

The senators’ lack of familiarity with parliamentary procedure slowed the meetings.

At the Feb. 17 meeting, several senators asked to suspend parliamentary rules so they could ask questions without first putting a motion on the floor. Kaleem responded that the senators had been given a week to clarify budget recommendations.

At one point in the Feb. 24 meeting, senator Kush Patel mistakenly objected to ending discussion about a motion to allocate $10,280 to the Puente Project. This forced a vote requiring two-thirds majority to end discussion, which failed.

“Sorry, I screwed up,” Patel said when discussion re-opened.

Patel ultimately left the Feb. 24 meeting early.

At the end of the meeting, the DASB Senate had $3,446 left to allocate and one organization left to discuss: Latino Empowerment at De Anza.

Senators had positive things to say about LEAD. Many pointed out that LEAD isn’t available only to Latinos, but to the entire De Anza community.

“I really think they deserve this money,” senator Elaine Edberg said.

Without discussing how the money would specifically be used, the senate passed a motion to give the remaining money to LEAD, bringing its total allocation to $28,946, an increase from the 2015-2016 year.

The required second vote to pass next year’s budget will happen at the DASB Senate meeting on Wednesday, March 2.