After the loss of five members and a vice chair position on ASMSU’s programming board, ASMSU is looking for replacements while transferring duties to the group’s finance committee to ensure student events and groups can get funded.
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
The programming board, which hosts and funds student events and programs, has been unable to operate at quorum after five of its members left the board, ASMSU Director of Media Relations Samantha Artley said.
Artley said two members stepped down to study abroad and another three members did not attend enough meetings to maintain their positions.
Additionally, Emmanuel Williams, the former vice chair for student programming, resigned last week, citing schedule conflicts, ASMSU General Assembly Chairman Steve Marino said.
Williams could not be reached for comment.
James Madison College representative Evan Martinak will fill Williams’ role until an election can be held for a replacement. Applications for the position are open until Feb. 8.
Artley said ASMSU also is working to find nine members to serve on the board to make up for the lost positions, as well as three to four alternatives to prevent a loss of quorum from happening again.
In the absence of a quorum, the ASMSU Executive Committee on Finance and Operations is overseeing funding requests and student group presentations as the programming board is an extension of the finance committee, Marino said.
Artley said event allocation still is happening as planned but with the finance committee “superseding” the programming board.
The assembly passed a bill last week to create “The Emergency Funding Act,” clarifying the finance committee’s powers in overseeing these duties, as stated in the ASMSU constitution.
The purpose of the bill is to clarify the authority the finance committee already has, but not serve as a precedent to arbitrarily seize power over the funding or programming board, Lyman Briggs representative Dylan Miller said.
Special education senior Caleb Artrip, cultural programmer for the North American Indigenous Student Organization, or NAISO, presented in front of the finance committee last week to apply for funds for the 29th annual MSU Powwow of Love on Feb. 18.
Artrip said this is the first time in five years of applying for funds through ASMSU he has applied outside of the programming board but added it was a similar and efficient process.
“To me, it was business as usual, working to ensure (the impact of) programming to the MSU community,” he said.
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