MSA accepts committee nominations

By Jane Krull

Daily Staff Reporter

Although a motion at last week's meeting failed to require all members of Michigan Student Assembly to dress in costumes for their meeting on Halloween, Vice President Jim Secreto celebrated the holiday by wearing pink wings and a rhinestone tiara at the meeting in the Michigan Union last night.

Even with the festive spirit, the assembly discussed student group allocations and nominations from Campus Governance.

During constituents' time, Dance Marathon Executive Director Vikram Sarma addressed the fact the Budget Priorities Committee has not yet finished allocation funds to students groups.

"This strongly affects student activism on this campus," said Sarma, an LSA senior. "Student groups don't have the money they need to put on their programs."

The hectic schedules of the BPC members is the reason the allocations were later than usual, BPC Chair Siafa Hage said.

"We had trouble getting together due to it being a busy time of year due to mid-terms," Hage said, adding that the allocation recommendations are now finished and available at the MSA Website.

Hage said there will be efforts to address it at next week's meeting.

In committee reports, External Relations Committee chair Sarah Pray asked for the participation of the assembly in the Association of Michigan Universities Conference that the University will be hosting Nov. 18 and 19.

Public universities in Michigan were invited to attend - all have confirmed, except Wayne State University.

"The main goal of the conference is to create a lobbying platform to get Michigan students' concerns voiced in Lansing," Pray said.

The assembly also unanimously accepted campus governance nominations last night.

"The nominations appoint student members to various campus committees," Campus Governance Committee Vice-Chairwoman Liz Mullane said.

"We had a large number of applicants this year and had to choose between many qualified students."

Any University student could have applied to be nominated to the committees through an online application, Mullane said.

Student General Counsel Alok Agrawal, ran last night's meeting for the third week in a row - not MSA President Hideki Tsutsumi.

Tsutsumi said he might return to his role as chair as soon as next week.

"I learned the specifics on how to run the meetings," Tsutsumi said. "I feel comfortable taking back my role."