Round two of the debate surrounding the Minnesota Student Association’s fees request ended in a quick resolution Tuesday afternoon at an impromptu MSA Forum meeting.
After a short discussion, the forum passed a resolution to approve MSA’s fees request. The resolution stated that, rather than withdraw the fees request entirely, the forum would examine the request and submit changes to the committee. It also added that President Nikki Kubista and MSA’s executive committee will design a concrete plan of action when submitting fees requests.
“This is an internal policy to state how the fees policy will go to the forum,” Kubista said. “It’s basically laid out.”
In January, Kubista and MSA Vice President Erin Ferguson had submitted the request, which they authored, directly to the fees committee without presenting it to the forum for approval, which is traditional. In past meetings, the group had debated the constitutionality of this action.
On Tuesday, MSA also rapidly passed two other resolutions which dealt with upcoming University activities.
The first approved resolution was for the second annual “Pack Mariucci Day,” an event held in conjunction with the women’s hockey program. This year’s event is planned for the Feb. 26 hockey game against Brown University.
MSA plans to give out more than 500 tickets to the game, which will also include free pizza and prizes. This is one of MSA’s bigger events of the year. MSA representative Brett Rowlett said it will be an especially exciting game because the two teams are so closely ranked.
“This year’s game should be pretty good,” Rowlett said. “It’ll be a blast.”
The second resolution passed by the forum dealt with the “Demokracy Projekt,” a two-day conference that will be held in early April.
The conference, which will be held for the first time, is made possible by the Coalition for Free Speech, an organization committed to on-campus student organizations and their rights. The conference will primarily touch on student organization skills and the student organizing bill of rights.
“The University recognizes that the educational experience takes place inside and out of the classroom,” said Brandon Lacy Campos, an MSA representative. “Your experience at the University wouldn’t be the same if organizations didn’t exist.”