DASB Senate approved to donate $12,000 of the intended $19,000 in support of measure G and H on Wednesday, Feb. 5th.

16 senators voted for the donation, and 5 voted against.

If passed on the March 3rd ballot, measure G and H will allocate $898 million to the bond and $48 million to the parcel tax, which would go towards improving De Anza.

Benefits of having the measure passed include assisting De Anza students and faculty who are facing hunger and housing insecurities, increasing the number of counselors in the psych services department, and hiring additional janitorial staff.

DASB Senator Juan Marquez advocated for donating the whole sum of $19,000.

“This is our way of contributing to the quality of life to our fellow students.” Marquez said. “Funding this campaign means the difference of what is going to be the identity of De Anza in the years to come.”

Marquez said this is what De Anza’s special allocation funds are for.

But some senators disagreed on donating the full sum towards the measure.

Halina Liang, DASB Senator and Chair of the Finance Committee was outspoken about her hesitancy to donate a large sum of money to the campaign.

“I’m completely in favor of the idea of having student housing and better faculty, better counselors and all that for students. I think that is amazing”, said Liang, “but the thing is that we are funding a campaign, which means that the campaign may fail. We may be putting $19,000 dollars into something that just disappears into this sinkhole and we can never get back again”.

In the 2010-11 school year, the senate decided to donate $10,000 to the parcel tax that was proposed, but ultimately did not pass.

Faizan Miya, DASB Senator and Vice Chair of De Anza’s Finance Committee also expressed his uncertainty.

” I am not going to lie and say that I don’t like this measure. I just don’t think it’s worth that gamble”, said Miya, “19,000 dollars is literally 86% of our special allocations.”

DASB Senate currently uses the special allocation funds to sponsor several events and projects on campus. They have roughly $25,000.

Donating over $19,000 would mean donating roughly 80% of the fund, leaving the senate with $6,000 or little over 24% of the fund.

John Nguyen, DASB Senator, said the senate should donate $10,000 dollars as opposed to the $19,000.

“The only reason why they wanted the $19,000 is because they requested $19,000 from Foothill”, said Nguyen.

But Shelly Michael, DASB President and member of DASB Finance Committee said she did disagreed.

“If we fund $12,000 then we have $10,000 in special allocations which is more than enough for the year. We usually spend around $10,000,” said Michael, ” I genuinely believe that $12,000 is the appropriate amount to fund”.

Patrick Ahrens, representative for the board of trustees, said he advocated for the donation of the highest amount deemed feasible by the DASB senate.

“If you decided to donate $12,000, $10,000, whatever amount you give, the campaign, the board of trustees, your fellow student who I have been phone banking with almost everyday, we are grateful for whatever amount,” said Ahrens.