The Senate approved $675 in rollover funding for the Black Student Union but rejected a bill that would make "a beast of almost mythical proportions" the Senate's mascot.
Representatives of the Black Student Union did not attend a spring budget workshop and hearing that are required to receive funding through ASUNM without being penalized.
Student groups that do not attend the workshop or hearing receive at least 15 percent less in funding than they did the year before. All student groups are required to revert any funding that has not been used during the fiscal year back to the ASUNM general fund.
Sen. Da Vonda Bowens, the Senate representative for the Black Student Union, said members of the group were sick, had personal complications and could not attend the workshop or hearing. She also said she had some e-mail problems with the group, which could have kept them from getting the message about the workshop and hearing.
Sen. Gerald Pacheco said it is not fair for an organization that did not attend the workshop or the hearing to be granted a rollover fund when some groups that made the same mistake received up to 30 percent less and no rollover fund.
Sen. Joshua Aragon, chairman of the Steering and Rules Committee, said that although the group did not attend the workshops, the ASUNM Law Book states the group is allowed to have a rollover if the Senate approves one.
Aragon begged the Senate to pass the rollover fund for the group.
"Help students - don't hurt them," he said. "Have some compassion and mercy this time."
Sen. Josh Ewing agreed with Aragon.
"We all mess up," he said. "Let's go ahead and pass this."
The meaure passed but a bill proposed by Ewing failed.
He sought to amend article 10 of the ASUNM Law Book's legislative code to give the Senate a mascot whose physical characteristics would "reflect the omniscience of the Senate."
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He wrote, "The Mascot has the hindquarters of a donkey, the tail of a pig - coiled, not straight - the torso of an emaciated lizard with zebra stripes, the crimped forelegs of a frog (jungle green), simian-like phalanges, the bloodshot eyes of a walrus, one elephant ear - torn in two places - one rhinoceros ear - fully intact - and the nose of n anteater."
Ewing, whose Senate term ends this semester, requested that his peers kill the mascot if they decided to kill the bill. He yielded his final closing comments as an ASUNM senator.
Sen. Steve Aguilar said he will miss Ewing's antics.
"All those jokes about drugs, your uncle, your hair, weird animals," he said.
Sen. Joshua Aragon, a two-year Senate veteran, thanked many people during his last closing comments of his term. He began to cry a bit when he thanked Senate Pro-Tem Andrea Cook for pushing him to succeed.
"You're a big part of my life and it will be hard not to work with you anymore," he said, making Cook cry.
Sen. Da Vonda Bowens said during her last comments as an ASUNM senator that she was not quitting but resigning because she was moving. She added that she was proud to be a black woman and that she never flipped off Vice President Chris Mansfield.
"For the record - I'm innocent," she said.
