On Wednesday, Feb. 4, SLU’s Student Government Association’s student Senate convened for the 12th session of the 53rd general assembly. Senators seated four new representatives, approved the funding directives for the upcoming fiscal year and provided funding for multiple student organizations.
The Senate welcomed four new members who were interviewed and selected in the past month. Thanya Subhasri Ganesh Kumar, a sophomore accounting student, will represent the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business. Eeshana Bhuvanesh, a sophomore, will serve as senator for the Doisy College of Health Sciences. Aditya Gunturu, a junior biology and public health student, will represent the College of Public Health and Social Justice. Kelsi Leishman, a freshman studying public health and Spanish, will represent first-year students.
The seating bill passed with a vote of 25-0-0.
The Senate also voted to charter the Hawai’i Club as a chartered student organization. The club, which became a developing student organization in May 2025, focuses on teaching Hawaiian culture through events like lei making workshops, musubi making seminars and trivia nights. The organization has partnered with other diversity leadership cabinet clubs and participated in the Chinese Language Culture Club’s winter cafe.
“We like to think of ourselves as a learning club. We want to be able to teach Hawaiian culture. We want to be able to teach what we eat every day,” Lili Kramer, president of Hawai’i Club, said.
The club serves as a learning opportunity for students interested in Hawaiian culture, including food, language and history. It also serves as an outlet for students from Hawai’i. Future events include Olelo Hawai’i sessions on local dialect and slang, Makahiki games and a traditional lu’au celebrating Lei Day. The organization also aims to educate students about the history of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani, as well as preserve the Hawaiian and Pidgin languages, both of which are declining in use.
The charter passed with a vote of 27-0-0.
Additionally, the Senate voted on several funding bills and approved funding directives for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Senate provided $2,400 of wellness funding to Best Buddies for their “Cooking Towards Inclusion” event with Fennel Cooking Studio on March 19. The event will focus on practical cooking skills for 20 attendees, from both SLU and the greater St. Louis community. Fennel Cooking Studio is owned by Jackie Price, a former SLU student.
“We never want any of our members to feel like any of their identities are a burden on anyone else or anyone is really accommodating them. We want them to feel welcome in whatever space we provide for them,” McKenna Orrico, the vice president of Best Buddies, said.
The bill passed with a vote of 26-0-0.
Additionally, senators approved $7,650 of spot funding for the Flying Billikens, SLU’s demonstration flight team. The team will attend the National Intercollegiate Flying Association Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference Nationals in Illinois after placing fourth at regionals, hosted at SLU. The team competes in ground events, including aircraft identification, computer accuracy, preflight event, as well as flight events such as accuracy landings, power-off accuracy landings, message drop and traditional navigation without technology.
The Senate also provided $3,070 of spot funding to the SLU Powerlifting Club to attend the U.S. Powerlifting Competition Collegiate National Meet and $6,180 of spot funding to the National Society of Black Engineers to attend their national convention in Baltimore from March 18-22. Both bills passed with votes of 26-0-0.
Senators approved $888.80 of spot funding for the Elevation Irish Dance Team to attend Council for Interior Design Accreditation Nationals at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from April 10-12. The team will compete in several categories, including traditional, eight hand, four hand, cèilidh and fun number. Last year, they placed third in the fun number category.
This bill passed with a vote of 25-0-1.
The Senate provided $5,000 of wellness funding to the Environmental Law Society for wellness week on the law school campus. The organization is partnering with other law school organizations to host events, including a coffee truck, fortune cookies, pizza, bouquet making, succulent pot decorating, an exercise class and face painting. The events are open to any SLU student, not just law students.
“This is definitely relevant and a pressing issue that we want to continue to address,” Anna O’Brien, a 2L at SLU Law, said, referring to loneliness and depression among students.
This bill passed with a vote of 27-0-0.
Additionally, the Senate approved $3,150 of wellness funding for the Sports Entertainment Law Association‘s event at a St. Louis Blues game on February 26 at 7 p.m. The Blues will play the Seattle Kraken in this annual event, which is typically student-funded but will now be open to all students with 75 available spots.
“We’ve been trying to make some meaningful connections with the undergraduate campus and this event is just the start of that,” Julia Doran, SELA president, said.
This bill passed with a vote of 25-0-2.
Finally, the Senate approved funding directives for fiscal year 2027, which runs from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. The directives outline how student activity and wellness funds will be distributed.
“Given that every student at Saint Louis University contributes to the student activity fund, every student should benefit from annual funding,” Richa Kulkarni, SGA’s vice president of finance, said.
The new directives include several notable changes. Networking conferences, which have not been funded, are now clearly defined in the directives to make decisions clearer for the finance committee. Additionally, chartered student organizations and DSOs have been split into separate line items in the overall budget. New charter funding, which has always occurred in practice, is now formally outlined. The directives also clarify that a trip is defined as one event in one place, and funding may only be used for the conference itself.
The directives also outline several unfundable line items. Comfort items, as opposed to items needed for safety, will not be funded by SGA. Organizations cannot pay students at SLU, and parking and admission fees on and off campus will not be covered. Other parts of the directives were also clarified. Organizations that do not use their movie funding will be limited to one movie for the year instead of two. Speaker events will only be funded during annual funding, not through spot funding.
Wellness funding will see significant changes. At the beginning of the fiscal year, wellness funding will be divided between undergraduate and graduate student governing bodies. Additionally, student groups will only be able to apply for up to $3,000 as opposed to the previous $5,000.
The directives also revise the special occasion allocation funding, which will be overseen by SGA’s Diversity Leadership Cabinet. CSOs can apply for up to $1,000 and DSOs can apply for up to $500 if they attend all meetings. To qualify, organizations must meet two of four criteria: promote and educate on diversity, equity and inclusion on campus, promote belonging among the student body, work toward social justice or present and explain a different proposal. The funding is open to every CSO or DSO to increase inclusivity for accommodations, while DLC organizations can apply for any reason.
Developing student organizations can request up to $200 of recruitment funding from SGA and an additional $50 for printing.
The directives also address reallocations, emphasizing that money cannot be reallocated preemptively unless an event is completely cancelled. Reallocated money may be allocated to different groups, and movie events may be reallocated from one movie to another, but not to a different type of event.
The funding directives passed with a vote of 18-0-0.
The next Senate session will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
