The Student Association Senate unanimously passed an act Monday extending the timeframe for the allocation reclamation period – a process when the finance committee and the Legislative Budget Office claim unspent funds from student organizations – by a month.
The Reclamation Timeline Act delays the deadline for the reclamation period, during which the SA can reallocate any funds student organizations did not use last fall. SA Sen. Linsi Goodin, CCAS-G, and chair of the finance committee, said the deadline would normally arrive this week, but said the current deadline doesn’t give student organizations enough time to apply to keep their unused funds.
“We are giving them more time to make this process as transparent and equitable as possible,” she said.
Goodin said the finance desk under the Office of Student Life “is undergoing staffing changes,” meaning that their ability to work on reclamations is limited.
The senate also confirmed freshmen Adam Galland 28-1 and Veena Kittusamy unanimously as legislator general and deputy chief of staff for the executive branch, respectively. Senators failed to confirm senior Asad Cheema and freshman Sinan Kassim as director of inventory and executive secretary of community & government relations, respectively.
The senate unanimously confirmed three members – junior Fatima Konte, senior Catalina Desouza and freshman Michael Ubis – to the Joint Election Commission, which will organize this spring’s SA elections. Konte will serve as the Commission’s chair.
Newly elected Legislator General Adam Galland said SA President Christian Zidouemba asked him to draft an executive order to create a task force targeting antisemitism on campus after a Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy organization filed a complaint against the University earlier this month. He said the task force will provide methods, recommendations and strategies that GW administration can use to tackle and eliminate antisemitism.
Galland said Zidouemba will sign the executive order next week and create a 10 to 15-person task force composed of SA members, faculty and members of the public dedicated to evaluating antisemitism on campus. Galland said he will likely name some members of the task force Monday.
“With a string of abhorrent incidents of hate over the past few months into years, the time is now for student leaders to take up the fight against this scourge,” Galland said. “At any rate, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
The next senate meeting will be held on Monday, Feb. 6 at 8:30 p.m. at the Continental Ballroom in the University Student Center.
