On Friday, Feb. 9, the student senate at City College unanimously decided to lower their stipends, and discussed the spring semester’s upcoming events.
Stipends, the payment for ASG members based on their hours worked, were discussed in depth during their third meeting of the semester. Due to a relatively lower budget than last semester, the decision to lower stipends was one of many choices to be made in order to allocate funds to other projects.
“I’m sure most students don’t even know that [stipends] exist, and they don’t expect their representation fee to be spent to pool it up and give it to a small number of students,” noted the Commissioner of Fundraising Henry Fiebert.
The “small number of students” Fiebert referred to was the board itself, and the individual payouts they receive. Fiebert discussed the possibility of having the student government be purely voluntary.
“We felt that [a way] to broaden the diversity of ASG was to take the burden off of students that have to work, and couldn’t join ASG,” Amy Collins, board advisor, stated, shedding light on the original intent of including stipends into the budget.
After substantial discussion, ASG President Elizabeth Wilmer suggested the original stipend proposal of $16,000 be decreased by $2,500, leaving $13,500 for the stipend fund, split between sixteen student board members for the semester.
A roll call vote was held in the meeting room to approve the semester’s budget, including the changes to the board’s stipends, and passed unanimously. The board’s new allocation towards stipends now officially stands at $13,500, a dramatic 39% cut from the previous semester’s stipend spending.
After determining a firm decision on stipends, the board began setting the stage for the upcoming events, and other housekeeping for this semester at City College.
Commissioner of Events Mathias Goeb brought up this year’s Unity in the Community, stating that the event is a “yearly tradition.”
Unity in the Community is an event hosted by the ASG, where students can curate a table including cultural food, crafts and other practices, as a way of celebrating cultural diversity on campus.
Goeb and several others pushed for this event to take place on campus once again, and successfully created the new Committee for Unity in the Community.
The Campus Flyers Committee, represented by Isla Vista Community Representative Reemo Hooper, also outlined a plan to clean up the bulletin board towers on either side of the bridge, making flyers for events and clubs more recognizable.
As far as dates go, the board plans to hold another campus-wide blood drive on April 9, though the date may be changed as planning commences. Club Day is still planned for Feb. 14, concurring with the Valentine’s day event, where the ASG will hand out candy and themed Club Day passports.
The board’s next meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 23.
