On Wednesday, May 3 the ASCC Senate finalized the 2017-2018 budget.
They reviewed the objectives that remained unfinished from of the past week.
Alpha Gamma Sigma was the first item on the list in Section Three, they requested $6,600 and they were approved for $3,560.
Phi Beta Lamda initially requested $16,100 for conference travel, career skills building and leadership.
Senator Lucio Ramirez moved to increase the budget to $18,000, at which time Vice President elect David Ramirez objected, and made a move to actually decrease the budget entirely.
After a long discussion the Senate finally decided to approve $12,780 to PBL.
The next item on the budget was Cerritos College Model United Nations who initially requested $42,539.
Model United Nations President Carlos Diaz and club members Nathaly Guerrero and Kishan Lalla presented to the Senate as to why the amount requested is necessary stating the money will be used for educational trips.
Senator Eduardo De la Rosa moved to drop the amount to $10,000 because it’s a lot of money for CCMUN, which is money that can used for other clubs.
Ramirez moved to approve an amount $13,086 so the club can come back and request funds for their conferences.
Senator Joseph Escandon moved to approve CCMUN for $13,100
The Senate decided to approve CCMUN’s budget for $13,100.
Diaz felt it was unfair Senate did not agree with what the Budget Committee had settled on and decreased its budget way more than in comparison to other clubs.
“We as a club found this issue, very unfair, as other clubs did not have such problem we were cut down to $13,000 at the end practically a 69% decease of what we had initially asked for, while other clubs just got deducted 10% or less,” Diaz said.
He added that he wished one of the motions to approve $20,000 would’ve stayed because that would helped the club afford the most important conferences.
Diaz was not satisfied with the results even though they followed all the procedures the Senate asked them to but they will return to the Senate to request money for their conferences and represent the club more successfully at the conferences.
Lalla said he wishes they had more time to present and answer all the questions Senate had.
“I wish there was more time but I do feel like we were just going in circles. I also wish that the Senate would give a set time to the club during the meeting so that the club could use that time and answer any question directly.” Lalla said.
Other clubs, whose budgets that were approved were Phi Theta Kappa for $19,515, Psi Beta for $8,040, Puente Program for $7,500 and Women in Stem for $3,085.
The Senate approved Ramirez’s move to approve LINC’s budget for $5,365 an additional $200 added for birthday celebrations.
Senator Ramirez said most senators had good points and weren’t biased on the voting for the different clubs budgets.
“Even though I got heated a few times, I thought it was a good exchange of ideas and I’m sort of happy even though my amendments didn’t pass,” Ramirez said.
He added he believes all clubs should get the funding they ask for because it’s money that goes back to the students.
He wishes the motion for funding PBL with $18,000 would’ve stayed because the club is really involved on campus.
Senator Allen Malfavon is satisfied with the budget results, he commented there was a rollover with last year’s budget.
He hoped CCMUN’s budget stayed how they had because he benefit from a conference from CCMUN.
