De Anza Student Government pulled $7,570 from its budget to reimburse speaker costs and meals for its leadership training program in early September, at its Oct. 1 general senate meeting in the Student Council Chambers.
The amount included $6,000 for a day-long “LeaderShape” program, which had already been paid for and required reimbursement, and $1,570 for meals provided by local businesses during the weeklong event.
Alan Ma, 19, DASG chair of finance and electrical engineering and computer sciences major, said the additional funding was needed to cover costs for the daylong LeaderShape “Living in Possibilities” leadership program.
“We’re moving money from special allocations in order to reimburse,” Ma said.
DASG President Jayven Huang, 19, computer science major, called the approval funding request “critical” as it was already paid for.
“If we (senators) don’t approve this, someone is going to unfortunately take losses of $6,000,” Huang said.
LeaderShape’s website said its “Living in Possibility” program is “designed to create intentional space for relationship building and personal growth.”
At the finance committee’s summer quarter meeting on Aug. 18, the Office of College Life recommended LeaderShape because “everyone would benefit from intentional team development, given the context of the past election,” according to the meeting minutes.
The summer meeting minutes also noted that if the committee didn’t fund the training, the Office of College Life would “pay for the expenses temporarily” with its Fund 15 account, a type of unrestricted, self-sustaining fund certain programs on campus have.
“We (the committee) wanted to give more training to the leaders, since we directly impact the entire student body; we want to be more knowledgeable about how to be in this position,” said DASG Budget Analyst Thin Thida Soe, 17, business administration and management major.
“A lot of it was an increase in inflation (and) a higher number of students; Mentors (at De Anza), (DASG) senate and (Inter Club Council) are separate now,” Ma said. “That led to more people being in multiple positions rather than singular people holding multiple positions.”
Last year’s senate revised DASG Bylaws Article V, Section 4(b) to bar students from holding multiple leadership roles that receive scholarship money from account 41-51160 in the DASG budget, following conflict-of-interest concerns. The change brought more students to this year’s training.
Maritza Arreola, interim faculty director of the Office of College Life, said the office paid the $1,570 “through invoices with local businesses to build partnerships.”
“Most restaurants want to be paid up front,” Arreola said. “Having this invoice ensures no one has to pay up front, but we need to ensure that we’re following through our part of the process in a timely manner.”
Aside from its summer quarter meeting, Ma called for a special meeting on Sept. 24 to approve $200 of the $1,570 food funding, approving the remaining $1,370 at its regular Sept. 29 meeting.
The Brown Act requires governing bodies to give three days’ notice for regular meetings, but lets them call special meetings with just one days’ notice in urgent situations if they properly inform the public.
Outside of the finance committee’s meeting subpage on the college website, committee members did not notify the senate Discord as was the precedent last year’s senate set for special meetings.
Ma declined to comment on the special meeting, public notice or the additional funding allocations.
The finance committee’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Oct. 13 and the senate meets this Wednesday, Oct. 8.
