WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1896 www.thesunflower.com
Aug. 31, 2023
Volume 128 Issue 2
‘FREE FOR ALL’
The Student Government Association’s meeting room was packed as several student organizations stood in on the Aug. 30 meeting to hear about the fate of their organization’s funding. | Photo by Mia Hennen / The Sunflower
Student organization funding finalized during extended Student Senate meeting BY TRINITY RAMM
managing@thesunflower.com
During an Student Government Association Senate meeting on Aug. 30, the Student Senate voted to approve the registered student organizations Appropriations Act with changes. The body rejected voting on the Act in its entirety. Instead, the Senate voted to go through the budget line-by-line and approve and adjust individual appropriations. Because of this, 74 separate bills will be created in order to codify these new allocations. Both Shocker Racing teams took large hits to their allocations as senators and chair people targeted both groups to reallocate funds to other organizations. “The logic that I will be working with this evening with regards to the two racing organizations is the total amount that would be required (for the organizations) to compete,” Jay Thompson, government oversight chairperson, said. The amount they need to compete includes registration and software fees, gas, hotel, car rentals and food. For Shocker Racing Baja SAE, their competition budget totals $13,795 and Shocker Racing Formula SAE’s budget for competition sits at $13,389. Student organizations spoke in a special public forum that was targeted toward appropriations as a last effort to change their funding. Twenty students, both undergraduate and graduate, spoke of their financial situations, with a few clubs suggesting that the body approve or reject the bill. The Sunflower has yet to receive the finalized budget from Wednesday night’s meeting. Watch
thesunflower.com for more information as soon as it becomes available.
MONDAY’S DELIBERATIONS Student Government Association’s Student Funding Committee came in with a difficult task – allocating $180,000 to 74 organizations that requested over $700,000 combined. After a student filed a petition, calling for a look at the language of Student Government Association (SGA)’s bylaws, the Student Government Supreme Court ruled that the Finance Commission was illegitimate and their initial deliberations on Aug. 4-6 that were approved by the Senate were voided. Organizations were emailed on Sunday to notify them that deliberations would be redone on Monday night. Organizations were given three minutes to present their case, which included a Q&A session from the board. At the start of the Monday night’s meeting, the committee had $165,000 to give to organizations. Toward the end of the meeting, Student Body Treasurer Jia Wen Wang said that her and Student Body President Iris Okere had previously agreed that $15,000 from SGA’s reserves would be added to the total appropriations money pool, bringing the available money to $180,000. “We didn’t feel comfortable putting the $15,000 back into reserves,” Wang said. “Our goal is to support as many organizations as possible.” The Student Funding Committee initially went through each organization in alphabetical order for
redoing allocations, going through each organization, and adding or decreasing funds. After the committee had gone through each organization once, they began the second, “free for all” round. “You pick whatever organization that you want to take money from (in the second round) because at this point, we’re $26,660 over (budget),” Wang said. The committee spent nearly an hour picking at the budget. With less than 30 minutes left in the meeting, the committee still had to cut approximately $1500. All organizations whose allocation sat at $1000 or above were docked an additional $30 after Student Body Vice President Sophie Martins made a motion to stipulate this to “evenly cut from organizations.” “This is not having to cut thousands of dollars from another organization because it was kind of like heartbreaking at this point,“ Martins said. ”I don’t want to touch organizations that are already struggling with lower amount that we’re giving them.” In the final minutes of the meeting, the committee was left with $185, which was split between two groups: $95 went to Engineering Without Borders and $90 went to Shocker Racing Formula SAE. Three clubs received allocations above $10,000: SHPE: Leading Hispanics in STEM, Shocker Racing Baja SAE and Shocker Racing Formula SAE. Model UN was $30 off of this threshold. At the end of the meeting, Model UN members threw thumbs down at the committee’s final decision.
SEE SENATE, PAGE 2
‘Speak out’: Student calls for resignation of student body president, VP BY ALLISON CAMPBELL news@thesunflower.com
During the second Student Government Association Senate meeting of the year, former at-large senator Vishnu Avva called for the resignation of Student Body President Iris Okere and Vice President Sophie Martins. Avva, who recently spoke to The Sunflower regarding the same topic (see page 2 for the full story), stated that the “corruption happening behind the scenes by the student body president” needed to be addressed. In the spring of 2023, Avva applied for a legislative and policy affairs director position under the Okere-Martins administration. Avva, who served as an intern for Laura Kelly, Sen. Pat Pettey and Rep. Rui Xu, says he was “beyond qualified” for the role, but would never come to learn if he was the most qualified because he
was not granted an interview, along with several other rejected applicants. In his address to SGA, Avva said that many others, including six members of the president’s cabinet, did not apply for their nominated positions and were being held to a different standard than other applicants. “I think with personal connections to the president, and especially then being in the Senate beforehand, and again, what we’ve noticed in the previous articles with conflict of interest with significant others,” Avva said. “I feel as though some people might put their personal relationships over what they should do.” Avva said that it is possible that the accepted applicants were, in fact, the “most qualified applicants,” but the fact that not every candidate was interviewed and many positions were offered in advance hinders Okere’s ability to do so.
“I’m happy I didn’t get selected because I didn’t want to be part of something that did that.” Avva called for the resignation of both Okere and Martins. Okere left the meeting shortly after the call for her resignation, and Martins refused to comment, stating that she and Okere needed to confer with their public relations director Amy Nguyen. “I’m happy because they’ve been leaving like touting their agenda the entire time with no push back. I think there needs to be accountability,” Avva said. “If they’re … rushing to find a statement, it means they don’t know what to say, which means something hit them.” While Okere and Martins have yet to address Avva’s claims, Avva hopes that by sharing his experience and speaking out on behalf of others, he can inspire positive reform within SGA.
Vishnu Avva speaks to the Student Government Association on Aug. 30 during public forum. Avva called for the resignation of the student body president and vice president. | Photo by Allison Campbell / The Sunflower
“Speak out. Make your voice heard because if you don’t speak out, it’s just going to keep on going the same way,” Avva said. “If you speak out, then people are going to hear you and they might actually work to make a decision.”