The possibility of a scholarship for the most active club on campus was brought up at the Associated Students Organization Senate meeting on Tuesday Sept. 27 at The Great Hall by ASO Treasurer Mher Mkrtchian.
Mkrtchian’s idea is still in the early planning stages, but the hope is to encourage campus clubs at Pierce to stay active throughout the semester with events and fundraisers.
“It’s about a quantitative basis, how much can they produce,” Mkrtchian said. “How many activities, how many meetings, how many fundraisers to drive in money and to drive in students.”
The current plan would award a scholarship of $500 to the club deemed the most active at the end of the semester. Clubs would be given points for events and fundraisers, 0.5 points for meetings, 4 points for events, and 2 points for fundraisers according to Mkrtchian.
ASO President Barbara Lombrano sees the good money can do for the clubs and would like to do more for all of the clubs.
“It’s very hard for clubs to fundraise because of the red-tape and classes and everything,” Lombrano said. “I’m trying to make it when we amend our constitution and bylaws to try and make it to where hopefully we can give clubs every semester an amount of money. Maybe it be $150 a semester, so $300 a year. Or $200 every semester, because it’s hard to be able to do anything without money. I would like to see ASO, since all the clubs fall under ASO, to be able to support the clubs at a greater level.”
On top of the $500 for the club, Mkrtchian would like to see all members of the club entered in a raffle for a $1000 scholarship. Mkrtchian will propose the final plan to the senate when it is primed.
Also discussed at the meeting was the vacant ASO Vice President position. The position will be filled from within the senate at the next ASO Senate meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 4. Any senate member who is interested in the position will present their case and the senate will vote.
Lombrano looks forward to next week as she currently fills both roles of President and VP.
“It’s a lot of work,” Lombrano said. “Because I held the position of VP last year it’s kind of like I’m just going in that mode and just tacking on all the stuff for President. But it will be very nice to have a VP to kind of push this stuff on to.”
The Blatigenous club wants to host a screening of “The Garden” on Oct. 12 in celebration of Latino Heritage Month. Dean of Student Engagement Juan Carlos Astorga presented the idea prior to the scheduled finance meeting on Thursday Sept. 29.
“It’s an opportunity to really acknowledge Latino Heritage Month,” Astorga said. “It’s also an opportunity to really think about how we critically dialogue about our community building and what we do here on this campus.”
There was also a proposed film adaptation screening series to be hosted by the English and Philosophy departments. This would include four films that have been adapted from books. Possible films mentioned included “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Adaptation.”
Other items of note were the newly revamped Honors Transfer Program being introduced to the senators. The Student Health Administration Committee being voted in as an ad-hoc committee for the semester, and the cheer team receiving unanimous approval to have a booth at the ASO tailgate prior to the Oct. 15 football game.
