Throughout the tenure of the 69th Senate of ASNMSU, senators have been encouraged to increase spending from the previous administration. But the aversion to austerity was dropped for one piece of legislation during the Senate’s session on April 9.
Bill 430, presented by Sen. Rima Joukhadar, set out to fund the Impact Celebration event hosted by the College of Business Council on April 27 at the Trader’s Plaza. This ceremony promises to provide dinner for all attendees and will give awards to notable members of the College of Business.
One of Joukhadar’s guests, College of Business Council President Kassandra Vasquez, said business students will gain a lot from the event and from interacting with professionals in the field.
“Through this event, students will learn multiple things,” Vasquez said. “This includes network opportunities, as we’re inviting NMSU alumni. We are also inviting business leaders from both El Paso and Las Cruces. We are also recognizing leadership throughout the College of Business; the presidents of our student orgs, our advisors, and everything in between. We also want to offer opportunities for professional development. It is not easy to network, and this kind of community-organized event will allow them to feel a little bit more confident in talking to others.”
However, at $7,174, Bill 430 exceeded the $1,000 limit set by Bylaw 7-7-4-F of ASNMSU’s Financial Procedures for funding college council events. Sen. Aya Alsheikh warned that spending over $7,000 on a single event would take away funds that can be used by legislation in later Senate meetings.
“If this passes, including all the bills that are in second readings right now, we would only have $66,000 left,” Alsheikh said. “I just feel like maybe leaving it at $5,000 would be more fiscally responsible. We do have two more meetings after this, so – and I want to mention this as the Finance Chair – I just don’t think that this is very fiscally responsible.”
The senators amended Bill 430 and lowered its funding to $5,269 before the legislation moved to its first round of voting. Additionally, Bylaw 7-7-4-F was suspended in order to let the bill pass. Despite these changes, Sen. Gage Anderson, among others, did not agree with the amount of spending Bill 430 was still promising.
“I know that we suspended bylaws and whatnot, but in the name of fiscal responsibility, it’s too close to the end of the year,” Anderson said. “I mean, if we could lower it further, that would be great. But towards the end of the year, it always gets very busy, and I know that we have a lot of bills in this meeting, and I’m sure there will be even more in the next meeting. So again, it’s nothing personal at all. It’s just [that] we are going to be out of money.”
Anderson was one of 12 votes against Bill 430, which only received 10 votes in favor of it, denying the bill a due pass. Senators continued to question and chip away at funds for specific aspects of the Impact Celebration. Sen. Saul Angel Hernandez commented on the $31 dollar plaques the College of Business planned to award to individuals and urged the council to seek cheaper alternatives.
“One thing that we’ve done at my procession is we just printed out [the award] ourselves and just handed ourselves a piece of paper,” Hernandez said. “I do understand that awards are important, and I still have mine, the one that I have given myself, but the significance really is about the ceremony itself. Not how nice everything looks.”
Joukhadar’s guests were given additional time to make their case for Bill 430. Council president Vasquez reiterated the importance of the ceremony for NMSU’s business students and warned that if the bill did not make it out of legislation, ASNMSU would leave a bad impression on business students and professionals.
“Not having an event like this will be talked about throughout the whole college, and not in a nice way,” Vasquez said.
Bill 430 was stripped further to $4,330 – almost $3,000 less than it originally proposed – before it was put to a vote for a second time. The Senate passed the bill unanimously.
