After the votes came down, Residence Halls Association Comptroller Julie Hughes ran from one side of the room to the other to hug a General Assembly member on her committee. All their hard work had paid off.
On Wednesday night, members of the assembly passed RHA's spring semester budget by a vote of 21-0, with one member abstaining. Only a simple majority is required to pass the budget.
Hughes received individual budgets from Executive Board members Jan. 23 and continued working long hours throughout the week.
E-Board members came to the committee and explained their budgets the microbiology senior said, adding Executive Board members addressed whether they could handle recommended cuts.
RHA receives its funding from student tax dollars. This semester, the association got about $286,000 from the 14,000 students living in residence halls, and $9,000 was carried forward from last semester. More than $117,000 is allocated to hall government programs and executive payroll.
This left RHA $168,595 to spend on programs and events. Of that, only $301 went unallocated.
RHA President Derek Wallbank said this semester's meeting "could be a record" for one of the shortest ever. Debate ran for roughly 90 minutes, and other business wasn't really discussed.
RHA spokesman Brian Winters attributes this to a growing trust between the Executive Board and the General Assembly.
But not all members felt the same way.
"I just felt the budget wasn't debated enough," zoology junior Katie Boatman said. Boatman was the single abstaining member of the General Assembly.
Hughes said debate wasn't long because many members of the assembly attended the committee meeting and asked questions of the Executive Board directly.
This might have spurred an early motion to cease discussion and vote immediately. The motion was supported 11-9-1, but lacking a necessary two-thirds majority, it didn't pass and debate continued.
After some budgets were considered singularly, such as the Movie Offices budget, the same motion was introduced and passed 20-2-1. A motion to examine the Office of Program's budget line by line was defeated. The office was allocated about $148,000.
Not included in the budget is a possible increase in the RHA tax. Internal Vice President Tom Edwards said the Executive Board is discussing an increase of 50 cents to the tax, which will be considered at a General Assembly meeting in the coming weeks.
Wallbank also has discussed plans to introduce a bill cutting payroll for both Executive Board and General Assembly members.
"There are inflationary costs, the cost of Channel 12 (the campus movie channel) is going up," Wallbank said of the reasons for the payroll bill.
"We're just trying to be responsible with our money," he said.
