Nine students will be traveling to Costa Rica for two weeks this summer as part of the Alabama State University's Spanish Living and Learning Community due to the Student Government Association Senate accidently approving a bill during a reguarly scheduled meeting on Mar. 6 at 8:30 p.m. in the SGA Complex.
Sen. Tony Cobb encouraged the senators to pass the bill.
"The Spanish Living and Learning Community is asking for $5500 to go to Costa Rica," Cobb said. "The trip will be two weeks."
A member of the Spanish Living and Learning Community explained the details of the trip.
"We will be taking a study tour of Costa Rica. We are only asking for you to provide a portion of the funds we need for the trip. We plan on obtaining the other portion through fundraising. There will be nine students going on this trip. Each student has to pay $200 to go on the trip. That's $1800. Mr. Thorpe, a professor, will be going on the trip as the adviser."
The approval of the Costa Rica trip became a very controversial issue, as the senators apparently did not hear Vice President Jamilia Colquitt when she requested that they vote on the bill. After the bill was approved, many of the senators were complaining because they were unaware that they were voting to pass or fail the bill.
Among the presenters of the bill included senior criminal justice major and Spanish teacher Christopher Parham. After the bill was approved, Parham talked about how he felt about the events that transpired.
"I'm happy that my bill was approved," Parham said. "I'm sad that the bill was approved because the senators were not listening to the other senators. If the senators weren't listening to themselves, I know they weren't listening to me."
The adviser for the Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association introduced the senators to a proposal in which he requested money for a concert.
"We are in the process of doing some things that involve bringing some entertainment to campus," Ashbourne said. "Last semester, we brought artists to campus such as Trey Songz and Tank. We are going to bring milionaire producers to campus in order to educate people about the opportunities are available in the music industry.
He continued, "We are requesting funds for a concert. We will bring in artists such as Jill Scott . The concert will be held in the Joe L. Reed Acadome on April 19th. The artists make money by doing concerts not selling records. Record companies make money by selling records. The Acadome is charging us $7,000 and the artists are going to come in at around $60,000. Right now, the ticket prices will be $25 per student."
The Senate decided to table the proposal until the next meeting since MEISA didn't have the proposal in bill format.
A $1600 bill was approved for SIFE, Students in Free Interprise, to go on a regional competition.
Sen. Chad Jenkins encouraged the Senate to pass the SIFE bill.
"SIFE will be going on a regional competition," Jenkins said. "They are requesting money for bus travel and other activities. Many CEOs from some major corporations will be at the competition. The students that go on this trip will have a chance to network themselves inside some Fortune 500 companies."
The bill was approved pending that the funds are available.
Sen. Jasmine Smith presented the bill that would allocate $975 to C.J. Dunn Towers.
"Basically, each dormitory is supposed to recieve $1000 as a line item in the SGA budget," Smith said. "C.J. Dunn is asking for $975 for a spring awards program for special things people have done inside the dorms. This will be held on April 24th."
After the meeting Colquitt expressed her thoughts regarding the senators' decisions.
"I feel like some of the decisions were not carefully considered," Colquitt said. "The one that stuck out the most was the Costa Rica bill. That was a very controversial issue."
She continued, "It was very apparent that the senators were not listening. There were alot of distractions. I saw another problem with the SGA Treasurer not being here. If he was here, we could have made better decisions about spending."
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