Lack of funding didn’t stop Teddy Roosevelt from charging up San Juan Hill

Student government extraordinaire Joe Milholland is back again this week, covering the General Studies Student Council meeting, featuring the Roosevelt Institute, food insecurity, budget changes, and more.

On Tuesday night, the General Studies Student Council. tabled a co-sponsorship proposal to fund $200 to the Roosevelt Institute and requested the group seek funding from the Joint Council Co-sponsorship Committee (JCCC).

The president of the Roosevelt Institute came to the meeting to request the money to fund the travel expenses for the GS members taking a trip to DC. These travel expenses – including transport to and from DC, transport within DC, and food – had already been covered for CC and SEAS students earlier this semester by the Student Governing Board, which then recommended the group seek a co-sponsorship from GSSC to fund the expenses from GS (SGB hasn’t yet made an official response).

The Roosevelt received 51 applications for the trip, of which 10 were from GS students, and accepted 37 people, of whom 5 were GS students.

As the council discussed this, Senior Class VP Michael Neier opposed the funding, stating that the council already funds SGB and shouldn’t pay a higher ratio than was allocated at F@CU. He argued the Roosevelt Institute should seek out other councils, who have more money and a higher ratio of students going on the trip. He also argued that the co-sponsorship money, which went into a large deficit last school year, was intended mainly for underfunded groups that were 90-100% GS.

Council members made proposals to only fund $100 or $50 of the request, neither of which passed. After much discussion VP of Finance Dalitso Nkhoma suggested the council table the motion for a week and recommended the Roosevelt Institute go to JCCC for funding.

• The council appointed Piragathesh Subramanian to be its first-year VP.
• GSSC President Elizabeth Heyman is continuing to meet with people about food insecurity on campus, including talking to someone at Mailman who works on food insecurity in NYC.
• Nkhoma changed GSSC’s proposed budget from last meeting so that the senior class council has been allocated $30,000 ($7,000 more than last time) and student events have been allocated $55,000 ($7,000 less). The council approved this budget.
• Alumni Affairs Rep Hannah Germond is reaching out to GS students about how they want to be in contact with alumni. Germond has proposed a Facebook page for alumni affairs and a pilot program for alumni mentoring.

Teddy in his cavalry attire via Shutterstock