Senate puts hold on 500 Family request

02/19/09 - After failing to bring R&B singer Ginuwine to the University of Rhode Island and returning the $3,000 Student Senate had granted to help with the show, the 500 Family Club asked the senate to help fund a new event.The bill, which was meant to bring Nicki Minaj to URI, was tabled until next week's meeting after long debate, only to be brought back for more deliberation by senator Zach Stolow.

President of the 500 Family club Lowell Williams said the new event would cost about $4,500 -- about $5,500 less than the Ginuwine concert would've cost -- but the group was requesting the same amount from the senate.

When 500 Family first came to the senate, the club promised they would bring together groups from all over the URI campus to help the cost of Ginuwine.

The senate asked what groups were on board for this next event, and Williams replied that the Student Entertainment Committee was going to cover the costs and labor of sound and lights, and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) would cover advertising. At this moment debate broke through the senate.

"All I heard was they were going to bring together groups that would never come together without the 500 family," Chairwoman Amanda LaRocca said. "Who is here tonight? The 500 family, not the groups they told us they were going to bring together."

After Williams stated he had verbal confirmation from SEC that they would help with lights and sound, Finance Committee Chairman Allen Petit, along with other members of the committee, said that a member of the SEC had come to them having no definite confirmation of Williams' claim.

Student Senate President Tom Ahrens confirmed SEC administrative secretary Sarah Shields said SEC had not officially committed to the group's event.

According to Stolow, the major issue was that if the senate were to fund this new event, the majority of the money would be coming from the senate.

Ahrens asked Stolow to bring the issue back into discussion during open forum.

"[Ahrens] had asked me as a favor because I had confirmation from Mike Knoll [the SEC Administrator]," Stolow said.

Petit pointed out earlier that senate funded the 500 Family 30 percent of the total cost of the Ginuwine event, and if granted the same amount for this event, the senate would be funding roughly 70 percent.

With this bill, "instead of having them go out and network with other groups like they were supposed to, they were just planning on senate giving them the money to put the concert on," Stolow said.

The bill will continue to be reviewed again during next week's meeting.

In other news:

Senator Anthony Sinapi was elected to the Bylaws Committee last night. He ran unopposed after Chairman Maxwell Adepoju declined his nomination. Before the vote was cast, senator Amanda LaRocca spoke of Sinapi's color-coded bylaw notes. "I read the bylaws a few times," Sinapi joked in reply.

Submissions for the Ellery Pond restoration project has been postponed until next week because no submissions have been made so far.

Senate granted the Electronic Music Club $2,000 to hold its eighth annual "Dance Till Dawn" event on April 4. Senate provided $1,000 from the programming contingency fund, and the remaining $1,000 was taken from the alcohol-free event contingency fund. The theme of this year's dance party is the Renaissance.