During the Student Senate meeting on Oct. 4, senators debated the budget used to fund 18 different student organizations within the Student Government Association. One of the main points of discussion included an appeal by The Big Event.
After extensive debate over The Big Event’s appeal to increase the amount of money allocated to the organization, the Student Senate voted against the increase due to budgetary constraints. After this amendment was struck down, the budget was unanimously approved.
“It hurts our hearts to cut some funds from these organizations, to not allow Replant a full allocation of trees, to not allow Big Event every tool they need,” Senator Jason Edmonson said. “We try to do everything we can to make sure that’s not an issue.”
Big Event received 21.7 percent of the funds allocated by Student Senate with the next biggest organization being Aggie Muster with 14 percent of the budget.
“We allocated these funds to make the biggest impact on students and the community,” Senator Mathew Walther said. “We allocated these funds to go to organizations like Big Event to accomplish this goal.”
Chair of Legislative Affairs Katina Economides and Senator Jillian Haug proposed a resolution to support survivors of sexual assault on campus in response to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy Devos’ move to rescind a set of Obama-era guidelines on how campuses should handle sexual assault cases under Title IX. 
“This resolution is saying we honor our survivors no matter what,” Economides said. “We are not changing anything in Title IX. [Devos] has the power to do this, and we are saying we stand behind our survivors no matter what she decides to do.”
Texas Tough Together Resolution proposed by Senator Luis Moreno was passed unanimously and recognizes the effort made by Texas A&M at Qatar students showing support for those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
“This is something they definitely did not have to do because they are over 8,000 miles away,” Moreno said. “They are Aggies and exemplify the core values this university stands for. They took it upon their own to show support for students and faculty on this campus.”
Among other business, recently elected senators were sworn into office. The next Student Senate meeting is set for Oct. 18.