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Members of Apportionment Board, from left, Chair Tiffany Turner, Mike Hilty and Vice Chair Kyle Collum listen as members of Student Government speak about the fan bus for the women's basketball championship road trip at Thursday night's meeting in the Arcola/Tuscola room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. (Karolina Strack/The Daily Eastern News)

Senate clarifies fan bus discrepancies to Apportionment Board

By: Kayleigh Zyskowski/Staff Reporter

Posted: 2/27/09

The Apportionment Board meeting began untraditionally Thursday night in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union by not meeting quorum for 30 minutes.

While the board waited to call the meeting to order, members of the Student Senate addressed the AB members about the misunderstanding of the Senate bill for the basketball fan bus passed during Wednesday night's Student Senate meeting.

The authors of the bill had proposed the bill differently to the AB during last week's meeting than was presented to the Senate Wednesday night.

The discrepancy had to do with the way the tickets would be administered to the students.

The distribution of the tickets was presented as a lottery to the AB, but as a first-come, first-serve basis to the Senate. The bill was passed as a first-come, first-serve fashion, but many Senate members were concerned about "undermining" the members of the AB.

The first Student Senate member to address the AB was Mark Olendzki, followed by Speaker of the Senate Drew Griffin, member Ryan Kerch and member Omar Solomon, co-author of the bill.

"I felt this is what the students really wanted, after talking to many students," Solomon said. "I'm a new senator, and I'll learn from my mistakes."

With quorum met after the arrival of the final AB member, the formal meeting began at 7:30 p.m.

With no old business, the AB and the University Board presented their budgets for the 2010 fiscal year.

After having a substantial cut in last year's budget, the UB asked for a large sum.

In total, UB asked for $270,026. This is $30,557 more than they were allocated last year.

"I think this is a lot of money, but when you look at how they are trying to spend it, they are trying to spend it as conservatively as possible," said the AB chair Tiffany Turner.

While everyone is feeling the effects of the economic recession, UB has been forced to cut costs in some areas while trying to keep up with the rising costs of entertainment and technology.

UB has cut internal costs, by decreasing pay for some members. The lectures committee is looking into more cost-efficient presentations as well. The comedy committee had a decrease in its funding request, because it has decided to cut its major comedian for next year, and have smaller acts perform instead.

The AB also presented their budget asking for $24,305.

Both budgets were motioned to tabling for next week.

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu.