AS breaks tie for Ag senator, signs off on new budget

By ELIZABETH LEFFALL

During its weekly meeting, Associated Students passed a new budget and broke the tie in the senatorial race for the College of Agriculture.

Vice president of finance Jennifer Reimer presented AS with 2005-2006 budget recommendations that would put the senate in a $17,000 deficit. The budget passed Thursday by a vote of 13-1.

“We will be operating with $45,000 less than originally planned,” Reimer said. “This budget is no different than past years’. Every year the budget has been in a deficit but has come out on top by the end of the fiscal year, so this deficit is really not something we should worry about.”

Reimer said no cuts would be made to intramural sports, but the budget would cut funding for new programs by $6,000 and club events by $5,000.

AS also voted to allocate $49,000 to The Collegian until the newspaper begins receiving funding from student fees after the passing of The Collegian Referendum in last week’s AS election.

By a vote of 6-5, AS selected Kelly Ansaldo as the new senator for the College of Agriculture. Ansaldo won the senate seat over sophomore Nicole Richardson, a former AS senator.

Ansaldo, a senior, said she would focus on bridging the communication gap among the 17 clubs in her college.

“I want to re-establish the executive committee, where all the club presidents meet once a week to open the lines of communication,” Ansaldo said.

Along with creating a new school web page, Ansaldo said, as senator, she will fight to get the national agriculture honors society, Alpha Zeta, started again and inform students how AS can work for them.

Other AS senators elected in the last election are as follows:

•Social Sciences: Isaac Lopez

•Science and Mathematics: Melissa Gushiken.

•Education: Katie Yeffa

•Engineering: Steve Delsid

•Business: Brent Hansen

•Health and Human Services: Luis Baez.

•Arts and Humanities: Apryl-Joy Pascua.