SGA Considers Tech Rec
Joint Allocation to Georgia Tech Student Center’s Tech Rec – PASSED. GSS: 22-5-0. UHR: 19-8-1
The UHR and GSS passed a joint allocation bill that would pay for new pinsetters and a new scoring system to replace old equipment in Tech Rec. Tech Rec had requested money to replace the pinsetters, the scoring system, a new bowling lane cleaning machine and for covering the installation expenses. The initial bill requested $224,115.92 to cover all the expenses.
The bill had been bouncing from one SGA meeting to the next at the end of the year as the UHR and GSS were unsure about how to handle the bill. The biggest point of contention with the bill was the large amount of money that would be required to fund it.
By funding the bill in its initial form, the SGA would enter the summer semester with an emergency funding reserve less than their standard limit of $150,000.
In the meetings last week, members of the SGA brought up several different concerns about passing the bill. There were concerns that Tier 3 organizations would be hurt by a large portion of the SGA’s remaining funds being allocated to Tech Rec. Other representatives believed that Tech Rec didn’t seem to do an adequate job of trying to locate outside sources of funding.
In the past, Tech Rec has had trouble operating in the black, and the JFC said that they did not see a clear vision of raising revenues in the future.
Tech Rec said that they expected reduced maintenance costs with the acquisition of new machines and believed that the costs of the bill would be paid off in 13 years. Several representatives also added that they believed the inclusion of new machines would encourage an increase in Tech Rec attendance, therefore increasing their revenues.
Addressing the concern of hurting Tier 3 organizations, other representatives argued that a Tier 1 organization, like the Student Center, should receive priority funding.
The UHR and GSS approved different versions of the Tech Rec bill when they voted last week, so the bill went to conference committee. The conference committee version of the bill decided not to fund the lane cleaning machine or the installation costs. Auxiliary Services will cover the costs for installation and the lane cleaning machine. This reduced the bill to $185,316.
In an effort to get the bill passed, Senator Mitch Keller said that Tech Rec will not be able to run without the funding. Undergraduate student body president, Anu Parvatiyar, said that if the bill was pushed off to the next school year, the lanes would be put out of commission during the Fall.
New JFC Policy Proposed
Joint Resolution to amend the JFC Policy – FAILED. GSS: 8-9-2. UHR: 5-22-2
This bill proposed making changes to the current JFC policy. There was a potential issue that there had not been enough time given prior to the consideration of the bill, as it would change the bylaws.
UHR failed the bill due the GSS failure of the bill. The reasoning was due to the bill not being able to be reconsidered until the Fall.
Next Week
With the end of this week’s meeting, SGA has finished up for the semester. All of the new business items on the agenda for this week’s meeting were moved to old business.
SGA finished voting on all the items, leaving no lingering items on the agenda for the next semester.