The student senate met yesterday at 4:30 to discuss allocating Student Government Association funds, in the amount of $795, for members of the Residence Hall Association to attend a conference. The motion, which had been tabled at the Oct. 3 meeting, was brought up once more before the senate for discussion.

The funds will be used towards the transportation fee for 11 members to attend the Southwestern Association of College and University Residence Halls in Austin, Texas, Nov. 1-4.

Senator Larry White made a friendly amendment to lower the cost form the original $795 to $662.50. This caused questions from the senators.

Senator Jarret Hubbell asked why the amount was being lowered.

Senator White said that the Office of Residential services found some additional money to use in funding the transportation. The motion for the friendly amendment passed.

Senator White was given the opportunity to discuss the motion concerning the money. He said that over 1,000 students would benefit from the 10 students that would be attending the conference.

Senator James Irwin wanted to make sure that the senate was aware of a few things before voting on the motion took place.

“Major trips like this generally, are known about a long time in advance. They cannot just be planned a week or so. So, reservations at hotels and colleges are made at least a year in advance,” Irwin said.

“My question would be first of all, if they began fund raising on Sept. 26 and they have only raised $490 they should have known about the conference since the last one let out. Why was fundraising not done as soon as the old conference was over with, that is one of my biggest objections to this motion.”

Irwin also went on to say that a van is available for the members to use as transportation, and they could probably find a driver to drive them. He also said that the RHA consistently comes to the SGA for money.

“It seems like we are constantly having to fund this organization, when they are not new and they know that there are these events coming up so they should begin their fundraising earlier,” Irwin said.

Latoya Bailey, student life coordinator, spoke about her views on the topic.

“We are coming to you to ask to fund the bus portion of this trip, not the trip itself. We are covering the registration and the housing for this trip,” Bailey said.

Bailey said LSU and Tulane Universities approached them about possibly going in on this bus venture. The RHA thought it was a good idea, and they jumped at the opportunity.

“We did not find out about it until the middle of September when they called to ask us about this, because we were planning on going in a van,” she said.

“The reason that we jumped on it was because we think this is an excellent opportunity to expand our networking skills and our connections, and to really make an effort to get along with the other schools because our RHA has not done a whole lot of reaching out to other schools, especially here in the state.”

Bailey said she feels that it is the SGA’s duty to fund students who come and ask for money that will be used to benefit the students.

“I see no problem with the RHA coming to you for the fourth year in a row, or the tenth year in a row or the thirtieth year in a row to ask for something that benefits a large group of students,” Bailey said.

She said the residence hall students are a vital part of the SGA since they pay their $5 every semester to fund the organization.

“I think that it is your duty and their right to come and ask you for that money,” Bailey said.

Senator White explained that the cost fluctuates, so the RHA does not know how much money will be needed because of the varying amounts of registration fees.

Lisa Pierce explained what the conference will do for the RHA members in attendance.

“It is a program where residence assistant people, people that work in the dorms, staff assistants and residents themselves go and learn and understand what is going on in programming,” she said.

Pierce said residents benefit by going and interacting and participating in the program, and that those same programs can be brought to Nicholls to help the students here.

Pierce also said she knows of organizations with admissions that have come to the SGA over and over asking for funds, or just penciling the SGA in for $2,000 at a time. She also said she would not mention the names of senators who benefited from that funding, and did not complain about the amount of funding for the organization.

“I would just ask that you consider giving us this money because we did not know the bus would cost so much,” Pierce said.

Senator White said there is nothing in the SGA constitution that states the amount of times an organization can come before the senate or the amount of money that the senate is allowed to allocate to the organizations.

“Lisa, that was rude. The reason why I always question motions is because I am all about student funds. I believe the students are the number one thing, our number one goal,” Irwin said.

Irwin said he wanted to make sure the senate was aware of everything that the student senators allocate money for.

“I need to make sure that the senate is aware and that they make the best possible decision that they can,” Irwin said.

He said having students attend conferences is an awesome idea.

“However, I find it is very rude and not kosher to try to win one issue with another issue,” he said.

The motion was passed to allocate $662.50 to the RHA conference bus trip.