Newly elected senators watched their predecessors and future co-workers unanimously pass funding for student organizations in a meeting Wednesday.
Senators congratulated members of The Connection slate for their victory in the ASUNM elections before moving through a list of appropriations.
The Senate allocated $330 for Kappa Kappa Psi, $140 for the Student Court housed in the Student Services Center, $500 for the new student organization Los Guerreros de Chicomostoc Aztec Dance, $240 for the undergraduate Anthropology Society and $1,750 for the Student Athletic Trainers.
The Senate decided to table three finance bills, including one for the Hemp Coalition so it could learn more about the group’s proposed trip to Amsterdam.
Finance chairman Grant Nichols told the Senate that it has $5,430 in student fees left to allocate in its final meeting.
Sen. Nicole Griego requested during her closing comments that people come to her if they are unhappy with her job performance instead of talking to others or the media. Griego was referring to a letter to the editor in the April 11 Daily Lobo that said she was not doing her job.
Sen. Tim Serna told the Senate during his closing comments that he has also been picked on in the paper and that it comes with the position.
“We are public servants, and it is public information,” he said.
Sen. Joshua Aragon, Steering and Rules chairperson, said his committee has made great progress since the last Senate meeting when he begged them to write bills before the end of the semester.
“Thanks for being so productive,” he said. “Now I can have one last long meeting.”
Senator-elect Jackie Farrington of The Connection slate said she was learning by watching the senators interact with each other during the meeting, though sitting in the gallery just isn’t as fun.
“You can’t be active, so you’re just kind of watching,” she said.
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Farrington said this is the second Senate meeting that she has been to and hasn’t been able to come to more because she has a class during the regular meeting time. Wednesday’s meeting was held two hours earlier so senators could attend the UNM Senior Recognition Ceremony.
Farrington said she prepared for her position by looking over the Law Book and Constitution before the election.
“I didn’t want to go into this blind,” she said.
Sarah Bullard, a newly elected senator from The Connection slate, said she came to the meeting to get a feel for the Senate’s atmosphere. She said senators from the other slate introduced themselves to her, and she thinks she will be able to work well with everyone.
Elizabeth Louton, who was a senatorial candidate on The People slate, said she has been to many of the Senate meetings this semester and will continue to come regardless of election results.
“Just because I lost — it doesn’t mean that I can’t come,” she said.
Louton is a member of the Hispanic Honor Society and was passing out flyers for a Salsa Dance at McGilvray’s on April 21. The dance is an all-ages event and the proceeds go to the Agora Crisis Center and Students Educating Peers About Sex.
