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Scott McCulloch Distribution Manager The March 5th Student Senate meeting opened with Muslim Student Association President Mohammed Sarhan questioning how the Shoreline administration has handled the MSA's request for $5,999. The money is needed to pay for the initial meeting of the Northwest Conference of Muslim Students, a new regional conference proposed by Shoreline MSA, to be held in the HUB at the University of Washington, and scheduled for May 24 - 25. Muslim student associations in other parts of the country have similar regional conferences. Sarhan said the administration had "thrown up barrier after barrier" in an attempt to prevent the conference from happening. He also called attention to what he saw as student government's inability to spend money as students wish. "I just wish our money had some power," he said repeatedly. Scott Saunders, advisor to student government, replied that certain aspects of the MSA proposal were simply illegal, and that "there is no devious scheme on the part of the administration to keep MSA down." Saunders pointed out that the budget proposal requested money to pay for food, but did not account for the revenue which would be raised when that food was sold at the conference. He also said it may be against the law for SCC to fund an off-campus event at which the majority of attendees were not SCC students, especially when the benefit to the college is not readily apparent. Saunders said he supported the idea of the conference, however, and would work to make it happen, but, "it must be put together in a way that makes sense financially and is legal." Sarhan said he was willing to deal with these problems, but he wished the administration had pointed them out sooner. In an interview later, in the Multicultural Center conference room, Sarhan said planning for the conference would go forward-with or without assistance from SCC. "We are finding alternate ways to get this money. We'll just have to be creative about it," he said. Sarhan said that he felt that this conference would be a benefit to SCC, since many of the people attending would be from area high schools, and would be more likely to choose Shoreline as their community college after graduation. He said food had been dropped from the budget proposal, so that was no longer an issue, but he expressed doubts about whether MSA would eventually get any money at all. "I think [SCC President] Holly Moore thinks she will get pressure from the board," said Sarhan. He said he thought there might be questions from the board about why a new student conference is being funded at a time of budget deficits, and with the current mood in the country. He recognized that any event involving Muslims would probably draw extra scrutiny. As we said goodbye, however, he said once more, assuredly: "somehow, someway, we'll come up with the money." The MSA has formed a new website, at: msascc.tripod.com. At this site you can sign up for mailing lists and check for further developments. © 2003 Shoreline Community College™ |