Santa Fe Student Senate approved funding, swore in a new senator and debated a club’s status at Wednesday’s meeting.
Senators voted to allow Health Services Administration Student Association nearly $4,000 to attend a conference later this year.
Senators also voted Christopher Hall as the new Internal Affairs academic senator.
Young Americans for Liberty Senator and City Commission candidate Lucas Jewell started the roll call to ensure that enough senators were in attendance to continue the meeting. But he caused a stir when he left immediately after his club was mentioned for roll call, saying he couldn’t stay for the remainder.
“Live free or die,” Jewell said before exiting the room.
For the next half-hour, senators debated on how to respond to Jewell’s actions. Some senators suggested punishing the club, while others said only Jewell should be punished since the rest of the club had no control over his actions.
Senators ultimately decided to have the club issue an apology at the Senate meeting next Wednesday. Until then, Young Americans for Liberty remains on shaky ground, which means it could go unfunded for the rest of the year unless Treasurer Aadil Muhammad decides otherwise.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 2/5/2015 under the headline “Senate jarred by member’s sudden exit"]
