The Residence Hall Association spends $4,500 on Senate dinners each year – almost 10 percent of its entire budget and the second-highest of all its expenditures.
Ryan Guilaran, a junior biological sciences major and former Clement Hall Council treasurer, wrote a letter published in Friday's Spectrum after he resigned from his hall council because he was concerned about how money in the budget is allocated.
Each resident of UB's dormitories and on-campus apartments pays a fee into RHA's budget – $9 per resident. From the fee, $6 is allocated to RHA, and $3 is allocated to the resident's respective hall council. For apartment residents, $4.50 is given to the hall councils.
RHA has a budget of $47,350, and the highest line is allocated to the "VP" line – $15,602.97 – one of the lines dedicated solely to programming for RHA. Senate dinners are funded from the second-highest line.
The RHA Senate's budget was presented to members on Sept. 21 during the first meeting of the academic year. The budget was passed by a 21-3 vote, according to the meeting's minutes.
"We put on programs that we have a lot of attendance at…We do as much as we can for the residents," said RHA President Samantha Kashinsky of the RHA's budget. "If someone has a problem with anything going on, they bring it to us, and we try to advocate for them."
The Senate meets every Tuesday at 5 p.m. in Goodyear Hall on South Campus. Residents in UB's 13 residence halls and apartment complexes elect two senators to represent their buildings – a total of 26 senators. Any student living in a residence hall or apartment can run to be a senator, and every resident is invited to participate in the voting process.
The senators and RHA's executive board gather to discuss RHA's overall business and then serve as the liaison between RHA and the halls, according to Kashinsky. The main point of the night, Guilaran said, is the dinner at the end of the meeting.
"Senate dinners are important," Kashinsky said. "They help bring everyone from around campus together. Our organization is a lot different from other organizations. We have people from all around campus – people who'd never really get to meet each other unless they come to Senate."
Kashinsky also stressed that the dinners are open to any resident on campus and are not just an "incentive" for senators.
The dinners currently draw 40 to 50 people, but Kashinsky and the executive board members want to see more residents attend. She said that the dinners are modeled after "family dinner," and residents get to have a night to meet new people and develop bonding relationships.
"Senate really is the bridge between all 13 residence halls on campus, and there's a lot of parts of Campus Living," said RHA Vice President Nicholas Chen. "It does induce a lot of talk, and it really is like eating family dinner every single day. [Residents] get to know each other, and that really helps make a lot of decisions."
Chen added that the dinners help Senate to make decisions because they make senators and residents feel relaxed, and the conversation doesn't feel as "stiff."
But many students don't know that Senate meetings are open to all residents and that the dinners are free and open as well. The Spectrum polled 40 residents from various residence halls – all but four students didn't know about the open dinners.
"I did know about the meetings existing and being open to students, but I was never really interested," said Marilyn Laistner, a senior chemistry major. "This is the first I've heard about the dinner part, though."
Other students said that RHA Senate functions are a "mystery" to most residents and wished the meetings were publicized more. Other students said they are more familiar with their hall's council, rather than RHA as a whole.
Kashinsky stressed that RHA would love to see more residents get involved in the Senate meetings and dinners, and she welcomes any resident to come and speak his or her mind. She said the main focus of RHA is to create a great environment for UB's resident students.
"I would say, come to our programs, come to Senate, see what we're doing," Kashinsky said. "Because a lot of people don't realize what we're doing, and I think possibly that [letter to the editor] skewed it in a negative way. We put on programs that we know [residents] love, we get feedback, and we know they enjoy them. And we're here as a representative body for them. We're here because they need us and that's what we want to give them."
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
