ASUNM revisited a bill that would raise student fees $6, and passed several pieces of legislation relating to student government law, as well as $4,302 in student group appropriations during a Wednesday Senate meeting.
Sen. Sarah Bullard moved that the Senate reconsider Bill 3B, which was passed by the Senate in January, amending it to raise the amount of student fees allocated to the Student Publication Board from 8.1 to 8.5 percent.
The original bill was passed in response to increasing funding requests from student groups to the Associated Students of UNM Finance Committee.
Besides raising student fees from $14 to $20 per semester, the bill would lower the percentage distributed to the publication board.
The board publishes the Daily Lobo, Conceptions Southwest and Best Student Essays.
When originally passed by the Senate, that percentage was 8.1 — which the committee estimated would leave the publication board's funding unchanged because of the increased revenue from student fees.
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Finance committee members recommended amending the bill after recalculating the amount to be about $2,000 less than what the publication board usually receives.
"The original bill was two or three thousand less than what it is right now," Bullard said. "We just bumped up the percentage so it would be closer to the original amount."
Students will vote on the bill in April.
During last semester's student election, voters rejected Constitutional Amendment Four, which would have increased student fees to $20, but would have lowered the student publication board allocation to 6 percent.
Some of the bill's supporters thought the bill's failure was caused, in part, by the reduction of the publication board's yearly funding, which is about $47,000.
Other bills passed included revisions to the Elections Code and other parts of the ASUNM Lawbook.
Several senators debated amending Bill 27B, which, as passed by the Steering and Rules Committee, would have given candidates 15 days to pay fines for violations of the elections code.
"I have issues with 15 days," Sen. Tim Serna said. "It's always been 10 days and 10 days is a long time. Fifteen days is almost three weeks, and that's too long to leave things up in the air."
The bill was eventually amended to allow 10 days for fine payment.
The Senate also passed several appropriations for UNM Triathlon, the Gymnastics Association, Chicanos for Chiapas and the Ultimate Frisbee Club.
Two members of the Ultimate Frisbee Club showed up to lobby for their requested funding.
"We just wanted to clear up the bad press we've got recently in the Daily Lobo," said Derek Samaras, captain of the group, called Hanta Virus. "They saw a pony keg on the field that some guys from Colorado brought and wrote their article off that. We are a serious athletic team, not a bunch of booze hounds."
The Hanta Virus was appropriated $2,200 to fund four different trips including their regional competition.
Chicanos for Chiapas was allocated $496 for a film series they will be producing. Triathlon was awarded $1,112 for travel expenses for their upcoming competition, while the Gymnastic Association received $500 for equipment rental.
The session closed with Vice President Steve Aguilar reminding senators about the upcoming elections.
"Things are going to get heated," Aguilar said. "Remember, we still have a job to do. We need to keep it clean."
