Pending finalization of ASUCD’s budget, senators’ stipend to give an additional $18,228 to ASUCD units

On May 22, ASUCD senators voted to forfeit their stipends in order to give more money to ASUCD units. This vote occurred during ASUCD’s annual budget hearings over the May 20 to 22 weekend. At these budget hearings, ASUCD cut many unit positions and expenses in order to combat ASUCD’s financial deficit.

“Everybody has to make some sort of sacrifice for their unit,” said ASUCD senator and second-year environmental policy analysis and planning major Noor Adilla Jamaludin. “It’s only fair that we consider that and reciprocate in kind […] we want to serve our students and ultimately a lot of these students are impacted by these budget cuts and it only helps them if we can help distribute some of this money to those units that could better provide those services.”

Currently, each of the 12 senators is paid $50.63 per week. Therefore, cutting this stipend will give $18,228 to ASUCD units. According to Jamaludin, ASUCD will evaluate the units on a fair scale to determine how much money to allot to each.

Because the 2016-17 budget has not officially closed, budget changes may still be made at the senate meeting on Thursday, May 26. As long as nothing changes during the budget’s finalization, the vote will go into effect at the start of the next fiscal year.

“[The senators] all didn’t vote the same, but I do know that, in my opinion, this will help the association and this will help the units moving forward in the next fiscal year,” Jamaludin said.