7:02 | The Council meeting is about to start. This is the 24th and final meeting of the 24th VSA Council. Tonight the Council will approve the VSA’s budget for 2010-2011.
7:04 | Attendance. All Council members are present.
7:08 | Finance moves to approve the budget for 2010-2011. The Council will have 12 minutes to discuss the budget before opening up the meeting to VSA members outside of the Council, such as organization leaders.
7:12 | Council is discussing a few particulars about the budget, especially the allocation to Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE).
7:13 | Council is discussing the increase in the Mid-Hudson Valley Fund. President of Main House Moe Byrne ’11 asked why it grew because few organizations have applied to it in the past. President Caitlin Ly ’10 explains that she has recommended that next year’s Executive Board merge the Hosting and Mid-Hudson Valley funds to have a general community fund.
7:19 | VP for Operations Brian Farkas ’10 is explaining that the budget “has to be voted on as a block.” The Council will vote on the budget. If the motion fails, then the Council will hear from organization leaders. After hearing from organization heads, the Council will go into closed session, meaning that all non-Council members will have to leave the room.
7:21 | The motion to pass the budget has failed. The Council will hear from the organization leaders who have come to contest their budget allocations.
7:23 | Jay Leff ’10 is here representing Hip-Hop 101. He says that he appreciates the increase in funding to $16,500, but the organization requested $30,000, which he says the organization will probably spend.
7:26 | A representative from the sailing team is here requesting an additional $500.
7:26 | Nate Silver ’10 is here on behalf of Shakespeare Troupe. The Troupe’s budget was cut from $3000 to $2000. He is also says that the VSA broke a bylaw–Article 2, Section 6, Part H–by not sending out the budget, which is a public document, to students 48 hours in advance.
Article 2, Section 6, Part H states: “The recommendation of the Executive Boards shall be posted for a petition process of 48 hours. Any VSA member may petition any aspect of the budget. Such a petition shall be submitted to the VSA Vice President for Finance and all petitioners shall be brought before a joint session Activities and Finance Committees and both Executive Boards.”
7:30 | Vice President for Finance Scott Pascal ’10 says that they were not trying to hide the budget, but were hoping to get organizations to focus on the amount that they would need rather than the amounts that other organizations received.
7:32 | Vice President for Academics says that if organizations received less than they had or than they requested, it was because the VSA Executive Board felt that it was because the organization did not use the budget as the Board felt they were supposed to or the Board felt that the organization could function without. She says that reductions were not meant to fill in other needs.
7:37 | “I’m a process guy. I care much more about this body than I do about Shakespeare Troupe’s budget,” says Silver. He says that one of the most important aspects of the budgeting process was the 24-hour petitioning period, in which time the joint budgeting committee would meet again. “I feel that while the intentions might not have been malicious, a big transparency piece was lost,” said Silver.
7:41 | Ly is apologizing to the room for not posting the budget publicly.
7:41 | Judicial Board Chair Dan Salton ’10 says that it was not technically a violation of the bylaws to not post the budget, though the Board should have posted it.
7:46 | Finance is addressing several particular points of the budget, including the Sailing Team’s budget.
7:55 | The Council has moved into closed session.
8:47 | The Council remains in closed session.
8:50 | Council has moved out of closed session, but has taken a five minute recess.
8:53 | Council will have another 12-minute period in which only Council members can discuss the adjusted budget. New organizations have come to discuss the budget. This budget will likely fail in order to hear from other leaders.
8:55 | Finance moves to transfer $630 from the Conference Fund to Shakespeare Troupe. The motion passes.
8:56 | Motion to approve the budget fails.
8:57 | Representatives from the Vassar Animal Rescue Coalition (VARC) are here. They are questioning the budgeting process and say that they sent e-mails to ask about their budget but received no reply.
9:03 | Finance says that he did not receive the e-mail and that he received the VARC budget application late.
9:04 | Because the application was late, the VSA may not allocate more than the organization was allocated for the current year and may be penalized by a seizure of up to 50% of their current budget.
Article II, section 6, part D states: “If an organization does not turn in a budget request before the joint Activities/Finance meeting, the organization must not be included in the Spring Budgeting allocations, except in extreme circumstance at the discretion of the VSA Executive Board. If an organization turns in the budget request after the appointed deadline, but before the meeting, the organization must not receive a budget increase and must be penalized by a seizure of no more than 50% of the organization’s account.”
According to Finance, the VSA was over-requested by $137,000 for next year.
9:10 | The Council has moved into closed session.
9:48 | Council has passed the budget for 2010-2011.
10:20 | Council appoints Chris Troise ’11 to the Judicial Board
10:34 | Ly is addressing the Council and thanking them for their work this year. She names preserving need-blind admissions as the Council’s biggest achievement.
10:35 | Damon-Moore is announcing that there the Computing and Information Services approved plans for a peer advising database.
10:37 | Farkas announces that 94.3% of over 650 respondents to the minor/correlate referendum preferred the name minor.
10:40 | President of the Class of 2013 Eli Berns-Zieve makes a motion to adjourn. The motion is unanimously approved.
10:41 | The first meeting of the 25th VSA Council is about to begin. The new Council will discuss and vote on a resolution supporting multi-disciplinary programs.
10:44 | The members of the Council are introducing themselves.
10:50 | According to Vice President for Academics Laura Riker, in difficult economic times multidisciplinary programs are the first to be examined and are the most vulnerable.
10:52 | According to Vice President for Operations Ruby Cramer ’12, if passed this resolution will be read at a faculty retreat on multidisciplinary programs on Friday, May 7.
10:53 | The motion passes unanimously. The Council moves into open discussion.
10:54 | Next Sunday, the Council will meet to appoint students to several open positions.
10:59 | Motion to adjourn from President of 2013 Eli Berns-Zieve passes unanimously.
