Students don’t want Student Government to “brand” its logo upon their goods, according to several student groups.

Representatives from P.R.I.D.E Alliance, WBUL, the Black Student Union, College Democrats, and the Student Environmental Association gave speeches at Tuesday night’s SG senate meeting, opposing a piece of legislation that states all items bought with Activity and Service Fee monies must bear a logo containing the SG symbol along with the phrase “Activity and Service Fee Funded.”

Statements from the Muslim Student Association and Sisters’ United Muslim Association were also read by representatives from P.R.I.D.E.A portion of students’ tuition each semester is allocated to Activity and Service Fees. SG is responsible for dispersing these funds to student organizations.

Many groups called it a promotion tactic used by SG that would end up forcing the organizations to spend more money on these items, thereby buying less of them.

“For instance, P.R.I.D.E Alliance is holding its biggest event of the year on April 18, the Day of Silence … It is imperative that participants of this event be easily recognized, because if they weren’t their silence would be wasted … we can only still barely afford T-shirts for our event. For next year if we had to add this SG logo in the form it stands now in green and gold, we would not have been able to have T-shirts for our event, making the day a waste,” said P.R.I.D.E president-elect Tyler Smith.

Other groups said it wasn’t their job to market for SG when in reality the money there are allocating to student groups comes from fees that every student must pay during registration.

“Our job is not to promote Student Government,” said a representative from the Student Environmental Association. “Please keep your integrity and the integrity of all other students.”

P.R.I.D.E challenged SG, saying that, “they only have the privilege to disperse this money.”

After hearing from several of the student groups, chief of staff for the student body president, David Brickhouse, asked for the senate to vote in favor of tabling the bill so that more of the issues could be addressed personally with the various organizations.

The bill was written by a member of SG’s marketing department and brought before senate last week.

According to senator Chris Rivera, the original idea was to use the logo as part of a marketing strategy to get more students aware of what SG funds. But at Tuesday’s meeting the executive cabinet changed their stance, opting instead to call it a method of making students aware of what their A&S Fees are used for.

After the meeting, Tyler Smith, along with P.R.I.D.E’s vice president-elect Joseph Smith, said that while they had hoped the bill would be tabled indefinitely, at least this will give them a chance to work out a compromise.

“We would really like to come to a compromise with Student Government,” Tyler said. “We are all student organizations – even Student Government. It just needs to be an acceptable compromise for both organizations.”

However, Tyler also added that if the bill should get passed in its current form, several organizations would be left with bitter tastes in their mouths.

“I can’t say for sure how all student organizations would react to the passing of the bill, but enormous action would be taken to show our immense displeasure – we will rally together,” he said.

New positions, new definitions

Changing the structure of the executive branch has been in the front of many senators minds for the past few weeks, and as of Tuesday night, the work is one giant step closer to being done.

According to senator Matt Coppens, in hopes of fostering easier transactions between the executive branch and its agencies – the Student Resource Agency, WBUL, SAFE Team and Student Government Computer Services – a position has been created that would act as a middle man among the four agencies and the president.

Previously, when there was a conflict or concern within one of the agencies, they would report directly to the student body president.

The bill outlining this new position as well as several others, was passed by Senate Tuesday and will take effect for the following presidential term.

Funds for football fashion

Football games may be seen differently from now on if the director of athletics for the department of Student Life and Development Megan Latchford has anything to do with it.

Latchford has been working with the Athletic Department to design T-shirts that students would be asked to wear to football games, in hopes of creating a unified effect.

Latchford asked SG to allocate her $47,700 to purchase 10,000 of these shirts which would be sold to students for $5. She also added that the Athletic Department would kick in $20,000 and SG would receive that portion of the money back, making their official contribution $27,700.

Latchford’s proposal was granted and shirts will go on sale beginning in the fall. The design will be called “Our shirts” replacing the “U” with the Bulls logo.