The Student Association passed all 13 appeals bills Wednesday night to end the rounds of budget deliberations and send organizations into the special programming process if they need additional funding for events.

The Finance Board previously allocated $1,900 to cover the Student Services and Programming Services costs for the April 30 Asia Night, but SA voted to allocate another $1,251.50 for artist and travel costs.

The Black Artist League requested appeals for two separate events, one of which was previously allocated $8,500. The Finance Board decided to continue recommending funding for the Hip Hop Showcase and recommended $4,592.53 of a $12,654.53 recommendation.

Comptroller Andrew Urankar said the reasoning behind this decision was to fund one event sufficiently instead of funding both events inadequately.

‘They will have the flexibility to move the money around after allocation to fund the other event or try to fund both,’ Urankar said.

The board also recommended allocating $3,557.30 of a $10,000 proposal from the Committee on Women and Art for the Matrilineage Symposium. Urankar said the recommendation is to fund a concert planned for eight days from Wednesday and not fund the other proposed events because they were scheduled to take place this week.

SA also passed an appeal for $124.70 for Overcast Films and Jerk Magazine, which had requested $366 for the production and showing of Overcast Films. Urankar said the recommended funding would cover make-up for the three male actors and to cover props for the movie.

Urankar said they decided to fund for the make-up because it is unhygienic to share mascara and eyeliner.

Vice president of Civic Engagement Annie Dean said she felt this request seemed frivolous and disagreed it was unhygienic to share make-up because she does it all the time as a sorority sister of Alpha Phi.

‘It’s only $124 though, so who cares?’ Dean said.

Urankar said Overcast Films is not a very large organization and took last semester off.

‘I hope we can help them make a comeback,’ said Sharon Clott, co-director of public relations.

The Caribbean Students Association submitted an appeal for two events: the Bob Marley Tribute Weekend Concert and the 3rd Annual End of the Year Flag Party. The Finance Board recommended not to fund the appeal for the Bob Marley Tribute Concert because it happened 13 days ago and decided to recommend $3,500 of a $3,726.00 request for the End of the Year Party.

‘They understand and they were told they could come back to the Finance Board for rollover,’ Urankar said regarding the Bob Marley Tribute Concert.

An appeal for Hillel was passed for $17,039.88 for speakers. The group’s bill was previously denied funding because they did not specify the speakers they were looking to bring.

Urankar said with the list Hillel provided with their appeal of potential speakers, the Finance Board felt their recommendation was best because the organization had the most choice of speakers within that price range for a March 9 event.

‘For slightly more than Dustin Diamond they can bring someone of a better caliber,’ Urankar said.

President Travis Mason said while he wasn’t urging the board to fail the bill, he wanted to point out that Hillel was being given a second chance through the appeals process by submitting their list of potential speakers at such a late stage in the process when other groups provided this information earlier.

Urankar said if the group does not use the money, it will be put into the SA rollover fund to be allocated again next semester.

In addition to the passage of the 13 appeals bills, SA also elected a representative to the assembly from the College of Human Services and Health Professions. Mason said this is the first time since he has been with SA he was has seen a representative in that seat.

Also, Mason urged assembly members not to be discouraged by the recent media coverage of the organization and said he is planning on instituting a new media policy for the organization. The policy would require reporters and journalism students to contact a SA public relations department to make an appointment with SA members.

Mason said with this policy he would be speaking for all of SA and not just for his own personal opinions. He said his hope is to create a uniform stance for SA.

‘You have to have a sense of humor about these things,’ said Jessica Cordova, chair of the board of elections and membership, regarding Mason’s initiative.

Chief of Staff Harris Sokoloff previewed the new SA calendar to the assembly which is set to be unveiled to students Monday.

‘This will be one central place to put all the events,’ Sokoloff said.

The calendar will display all university events and be displayed in an easy-to-read format.

‘This is really hip,’ said Joanna Gabel, parliamentarian.

Sokoloff added the calendar was free of charge to SA.

Mason commended Sokoloff for his work on the calendar and the upcoming SA Web site.

‘I created (Chief of Staff) because I didn’t want to lose Harris,’ Mason said. ‘I had to find something for him to do.’

Mason said he hopes to have everything with the SA Web site done by the first week of March at the latest.

Cordova said she is happy to see initiatives that were proposed her freshman and sophomore years finally becoming a reality.

‘I hope all the new members take motivation from Harris,’ she said.

The assembly also broke into their new sub-committees for 20 minutes to meet for the first time and to receive their handbooks.

Savannah Marion, vice president of Student Services, said the committee will be looking at the current South Campus bus schedule, the dining hall hours, and the current state of the Judicial Review Board.

Dean said the Civic Engagement Committee is working solely on the upcoming Big Event, a full-day of community service engaging both members of the university community and the Syracuse community at large.

Before adjourning the meeting, Mason spoke to the assembly about taking SA and their positions within the organization seriously.

Published on February 16, 2005 at 12:00 pm