The Student Senate voted to keep $3,000 for free parking passes for senators in next year’s proposed budget on Wednesday.
In deliberations that lasted over seven hours, the Senate amended the proposed budget for next year 13 times, making $2,000 in cuts and balancing the budget by allocating the remaining $22,000 to various campus programs.
The amendments were approved on a first vote. Next Wednesday, a two-thirds majority must be reached on the second vote to pass the budget.
The Senate allocated an additional $7,000 for the Euphrat Museum of Art, $5,000 for La Voz, the student newspaper, $3,299 for the Disability Support Services Computer Assisted Lab, $1,050 for the Multicultural and International Center, $1,000 for the California History Center, $300 for Adaptive Physical Education, and $250 for De Anza College Student Body senate scholarships and book grants.
The Senate also decided to fund the Puente Project, a statewide program that helps disadvantaged students transfer to four-year universities, which is separate from Student Success and Retention Services.
The total funding for Puente and SSRS remained roughly the same as the first budget proposal and recommendation.
The free parking passes will encourage students to join Senate, said David He, senator.
Currently, the Senate has two open seats.
"We don’t need it this year," said Bernardo de Seabra, Senate executive vice president, "but there are years when it’s really hard to get people to join Senate."
"This has been one of the biggest debates [in the Senate] of all time: should DASB get special privileges or not?" said Anna Callahan, president of the Senate.
Currently, the college gives free parking to the Senate officers and to Inter-Club Council officers.
In this year’s budget, the Senate funded the annual Student Art and Photo Competition, but not the Euphrat Museum of Art. The Senate also voted against increasing funding for the Honors Program. Senators were concerned that the program did not benefit enough students.
One of the stated goals of this year’s budget is to fund programs that benefit many students.
Funding the Honors Program "will allow the program to grow, therefore it’ll benefit more students in the long run," Senator Saleha Pirzada said.
Each proposed amendment to the budget had to receive a two-thirds vote before passing. The entire budget then had to be approved by a separate two-thirds vote.
