All seven members of the South Asian Students Association (SASA) E-board turned in their letters of resignation at the Nov. 23 Union Senate meeting after facing criticism for failing to inform its members of a South Asian Youth Conference that six of the seven members had planned to attend this week in Houston.Last semester, the SASA E-board went before the A-board (now called the F-board), Senate, and Vice President of Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy to request funding for the trip.

The A-board denied SASA's request on Nov. 10, saying it would not grant any money until SASA's leaders had informed their members.

Six days later, the leaders of SASA went to the Senate, filing a money request, which was later made into an emergency money request by the Senate for $3,000. The club leaders were not asked and did not reveal that they still had not extended the invitation to their club.

Some senators say that the meeting turned into a debate about supporting diversity on campus instead of one on the validity of the request. After deliberation, SASA's request was reduced to $1,800 and then granted.

A week later, on Nov. 23, the money was returned after SASA members had expressed discontent with their leaders for not informing them of the conference in advance, leading to the resignation of Ateen Paliwal '04, Priya Hedge '05, Lalitha Chandrasekher '06, Neeti Dharia '04, Purnema Madahar '05, Dilip Sidhu '04 and Chandni Valiathan '04.

In addition to money from the Senate, Eddy granted the E-board $1188.20 to pay for the difference of the conference, saying she was unaware the conference opportunity had not been extended to the entire club. However, the money request was cancelled on Nov. 24 once she received word that the SASA E-board was no longer attending the conference.



SASA E-Board members plan trip

Last October, the SASA E-board approached Intercultural Center Director Sujan "Suzie" Talukdar with the idea to attend the annual Asian Youth Conference in Houston, which occurred Jan. 15-19.

Talukdar agreed that the trip would be beneficial to SASA, but stressed that the SASA E-board needed to inform its members of the conference also.

The E-board did not notify its members about the conference until after $1,800 had been secured at the Senate meeting on Nov. 16 to send six SASA E-board members to Houston - more than a month after telling Talukdar about the conference. No other club member was extended the opportunity to attend.

Talukdar said she attributes this time lapse to the heavy work that went into producing Mela, which occurred Nov. 15.

"There was a miscommunication because of the business of Mela," Talukdar said. "There was something meant to be communicated to that club and it wasn't."



SASA requests money from A-board

The SASA E-board approached the A-board on Nov. 10 seeking funding for the conference, but was told to "return to appeals with number of people to attend the conference" the following week according to the A-Board appeals results.

A-Board Chair Mark Schlangel '04 said that since all students pay a Student Activities Fee (SAF), the "purpose of the A-board is to fund requests that try and benefit as much of the Brandeis community as possible."

Schlangel said that while listening to the large request of SASA's E-board, he said he did not doubt the conference would have educated campus leaders.

"However, our first question was whether this great opportunity is presented to all SASA members," Schlangel said. "If it turned out that there was no additional interest among SASA members, we would still have been glad to help subsidize the cost of registration for the [SASA] E-board members because the conference was an opportunity to further educate Brandeis students and leadership skills."

According to a SASA E-board member who wished to remain anonymous, not informing the club about the conference was "seriously an afterthought." The source said that in the midst of preparing for Mela, it was difficult to schedule a meeting during rehearsals to talk about the conference.

SASA did not return to the A-board for reconsideration and the A-board did not allocate any money to them.



SASA requests money from Senate

The SASA E-board's initial request was for $3,000, but the final amount granted was $1,800 by a vote of eight in favor, two against and three abstentions at the Nov. 16 Union Senate meeting.

Although senators knew that SASA had gone to the A-board and was told to return the following week, they did not know or ask why the request was tabled, which was because the invitation was not extended to the entire club.

"I would've assumed that [the A-board] didn't want to be the first body of funding to give money," Class of 2004 Senator Gabe Reif said.

Reif said the A-Board does not allocate funds for transportation and that it seemed logical not to ask further questions as to why the issue was tabled.

According to Union Vice President Ken Gantz '04, emergency Senate money requests are a last resort and only used in rare circumstances. Gantz said the usual two-week allocation process allows the Senate to research the funding request for another week and find solutions to cut costs.

We table the issue (for a week) so we can discuss it, and they can get back to us with answers," Gantz said.

According to Senator at Large Jonathan Cohen '06, who chaired the Nov. 16 Union Senate meeting, many junior and senior leaders were absent, with about 10 senators present. Citing the relatively low experience of those senators present at that meeting, Cohen said that comments made by some Senators expressing strong concern for supporting diversity influenced the outcome of the vote.

"I don't like that [rejecting the request] means we don't promote diversity," Cohen said. "I don't think that it was meant to be racially charged or understood that way."

According to the Nov. 16 Union Senate minutes, former Class of 2007 Senator Mark Samburg '07 quoted the Oct. 27 Senate resolution regarding the Dusty Baker incident.

"[The resolution] says we intend to promote diversity and education- why don't we stand by our own resolution?" Samburg said.

Samburg added that SASA's money proposal presented an opportunity to uphold a promise the Senate had made to the Brandeis community.

"I wasn't making (the Senate meeting) a radical debate," Samburg said. "We said we were going to do 'x' and that was our chance to do it."

North Quad Senator Aaron Gaynor '07 said that comments like Samburg's during the meeting intimidated some of the senators present, contributing to the final outcome of the vote.

"We had a small turnout," Gaynor said. "We had a lot of scared senators. We had a lot of strong senators that said if you don't vote for this you're racist."

Executive Assistant for Union Affairs Adam Herman '04 voiced similar sentiments.

"It was unfortunate to see the debate become a racial one in which members of the Senate were told by their own colleagues that if they don't support the request, then they didn't support the ideals of diversity," Herman said.

Former Castle Quad Senator Andrew Katz '06 said he abstained from the vote because of the growing racial tension.

"The SASA situation was a very difficult one for the Senate," Katz said. "After the racial charge of the first semester on the Brandeis campus, it was very hard to get a request like this one. Not only did they come at the last possible second and put us senators against the wall with an emergency request, but they also were asking for almost $400 a person. Only when I realized how we have been deceived by the SASA board did I really begin to regret not speaking out more actively against this money request and vote against us."



SASA Jean Eddy for money

Prior to approaching the A-board or the Senate, the SASA E-board submitted a budget proposal to Eddy for funding before Oct. 31.

Eddy said that students usually come to her for money and are told "to exhaust as many avenues as they can" to find other funding sources first.

After receiving approximately $1,800 from the Union Senate on Nov. 16, the E-board asked Eddy for $1,188.20 two days later.

But SASA President Paliwal notified Eddy the day after the SASA E-board resigned on Nov. 24 that the money was not needed because they were no longer planning to attend the conference.

According to Eddy, she was unaware that the conference opportunity had not been extended to the rest of SASA ahead of time and that "this is the first time we've had a group come through this office and say 'no thank you.'"

"It's disturbing to me that a request was put for a club and it was really only for certain members. In my time here no representatives of a club have misrepresented their club," Eddy said.

Other SASA E-board members as well as any of the offended SASA members refused to comment.



SASA E-board members apologize and resign

All seven SASA E-board members turned in letters of resignation at the Nov. 23 Senate meeting, apologizing to the Senate for not telling their club members about the conference before they had received funding for it. The SASA E-board explained that once they brought news of the money request and the conference opportunity to their club on Nov. 19 at the SASA weekly club meeting, members grew angry that they had not known about the conference in advance.

Despite four or five SASA members offering negative feedback about SASA's leadership in handling the conference according to the anonymous SASA E-board member, some SASA E-board members lost faith in the Intercultural Club Center (ICC) and the club altogether, and felt compelled to resign.

"I don't like the ICC and its bureaucratic regime," a SASA E-board member who wishes to remain anonymous said. "I love SASA, but I don't want to put up with this shit any longer."

According to Reif, senators were shocked to learn of the most recent developments occurring within SASA at the second Senate meeting on Nov. 23.

"We didn't know things were not OK in the interior of the group," Reif said.

According to the abovementioned SASA E-board member, different groups forming within SASA contributed to its lack of unity.

"SASA isn't a community," the SASA E-board member said. "There are cliques within. The only time they come together is for Mela."

Cohen added that Senate also felt betrayed when they learned at the second meeting that the opportunity to attend the conference had not been extended to all of SASA's members beforehand.

"It made us feel as if, how could you come to us without realizing how your club works?" Cohen said.

Herman agreed, adding that an emergency senate money request hindered the Senate's ability to fully examine the situation.

"The entire issue with SASA is apparently representative of a larger problem within SASA, according to those board members who resigned at one Senate meeting this year," Herman said. "Still, had the money resolution not been an emergency request, the Senate would have had more time to investigate the entire issue."

Katz said that Union Senators need to pay special attention to money requests while maintaining an objective viewpoint.

"The money the Senate is granting comes out of everyone's tuition, and therefore, recklessness and emotions cannot become a factor in carelessly granting the money," Katz said.

Undergraduate Representative to the Board of Trustees Ebone Bishop '04 said she believes that the Union Senate made a mistake in their judgment by granting SASA the money on Nov. 16 and not realizing the E-board had not informed its members of the conference opportunity.

"When we are in error we need to first acknowledge it and then take steps to make it not happen again ... we cannot think of ourselves as legitimate student leaders if we are unwilling to receive constructive criticism from our constituents," Bishop said. "How we handle such criticism shapes the way in which the student body views the union as [a] whole.