Saint Louis University’s Student Government Association tackled the question of quorum at their meeting yesterday.

Academic Vice President Samantha Morr was appointed parliamentarian last week after the previous holder of the post resigned. In that role, it was in her power to interpret that “half plus one of the total senate seats is quorum to have enough senators to start a meeting,” she said.

“Two thirds of senators are usually needed to pass bills being reconsidered, but nothing could have passed today which is unfair to the groups,” Morr said.

Morr and SGA President Sam Howard decided that two thirds of those present would satisfy quorum rules.

Commuter Senator Danny Laub said that he found this choice “interesting.” He authored two diversity representation bills last fall that he said failed because of the way the quorum was done.

“The two [bills] would have passed if the quorum was counted the same way as today,” he said. “For consistency’s sake, it is worth taking note.”

The bulk of the meeting dealt with funding for groups that sought reversal of the Finance Committee’s cuts during last weeks budgeting session.

The Muslim Student Association sought funds for religious and theological Islamic books, as well as funding for a lecture series. A Campus Ministry representative accompanied them to affirm that the items were part of the Jesuit Mission, as well as their importance to religious students.

Led by MSA president Haariss Ilyas, the students asked the Senate to reinvestigate their funding of the group. Most of the items earmarked to non-Muslim students had been approved and the cuts had come from activities that “were really beneficial to Muslims,” Ilyas said.

“We have a duty to provide these [books] to our constituents. . We should provide the resources so they can develop their faith.”

With regards to their requests for funding of a monthly speaker program, Ilyas expressed the need for qualified experts on Islam to speak to the greater campus body. Ilyas said that during the current school year members of MSA believed that they were attacked by certain professors during student-led discussion panels, so they sought someone more knowledgeable on Islam to answer the SLU community’s questions.

“People see us on campus, they make remarks-ignorant remarks,” Ilyas said. “With a proper speaker, we could address it. We have the whole media against us. we need speakers to address these issues.”

While their request had support from many senators, their request for further funding was rejected by a vote of 24 to 14.

The Student Occupational Therapy Association sought $672.20 to buy sounds equipment on short notice after a planned speaker brought in a larger attendance than expected. The Senate quickly approved this spot-funding request.

The final group to seek funding was Global Medical Brigades, which trains and sends students aboard to provide medical service. The Finance Committee had cut the $120,000 they had requested for the various costs of sending approximately 50 students to Honduras.

The request had been cut as the Finance Committee saw it as an undue burden on the student activity fund. Many senators felt that charity was not an appropriate use of funds.

GMA president Brian Kelley disagreed, and said that he believes that “there is a fundamental difference between an act of charity and gift of charity.”

While few senators were concerned with the size of the request, there was debate over how the funding guidelines should apply to this group in particular.

One senator with a strong opinion against the funding was Medical School Representative Aaron Hand who said, “We have plenty of opportunity to learn and to treat people in desperate need [locally].”

While the Senate did not approve the full amount they gave them $1,500 in addition to the $750 they had granted them the previous week.

SGA addressed its own budget concerning Leaders of the Pack Retreat, which had its food budget cut by $1,400 and was looking for $750 to provide a second meal for the two day retreat for campus leaders. This request caused some debate in the senate chambers.

“I am torn on this cause,” said Senator Bilal Mahmood. “I want to look at this as a separate CSO, but I know it is an important [event] for SGA. … I think by giving SGA this money we would be giving our organization special treatment we don’t give other CSOs.”

Nonetheless the Senate eventually gave themselves the additional funds.

The last major issue was renaming executive board positions to better match their job descriptions. As per constitutional rules, the bill was tabled until next week. The bill will rename the executive vice president position to vice president of student organizations and change the administrative vice president to executive vice president. The only policy change will be that the new executive vice president will take the chair of SGA meetings in the president’s absence.