The Georgetown University Student Association Senate passed an act on Sunday to establish the GUSA Fund, a supplementary source of funding for student clubs.

The newly created fund fulfills [one of the campaign goals of GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11)](https://www.thehoya.com/news/gusa-election-preview/). They aimed to create a fund to help student groups that do not receive adequate funding from the Student Activities Commission or other sources.

“We hoped to establish a fairly significant monetary source which would operate both as a way to involve GUSA further in student life and to help fund bright ideas,” Angert said. “Money is in short supply at this school, and I’m glad that, despite economic conditions, we’re making more of it available to students.”

The university’s general Funding Board currently has $69,000 in surplus. GUSA plans to donate its portion – about $30,000 – to the new fund.

“This is a way for election representatives to prioritize programming on campus – we can incentivize clubs to do certain events, for example, ones that incorporate diversity,” said Senator Nick Troiano (COL ’11), who introduced the bill.

SAC will need to clear clubs for access to benefits before they are able to receive money from the GUSA Fund.

The act also outlined an appeals process for clubs that do not receive the funding they request and established measures of transparency, including the provision that all minutes and votes of the council be made available to the public online.

The Funding Council will be comprised of the seven members of the Finance and Appropriations Committee and five non-GUSA members who must be nominated by the GUSA president.

A comptroller will be elected by the chair of the Funding Council and will manage the administrative duties of the council. GUSA plans to approve five representatives to the council in the coming weeks.

The senate also passed two supplementary bills in order to facilitate the implementation of the GUSA Fund.

The first bill gave the Funding Council the ability to allocate funds over $100 without consulting the Financial Appropriations Committee. The entire GUSA senate must approve allocations exceeding $500, however.

The second bill reaffirmed GUSA’s ability to appropriate Student Association funds and to determine its own budget.

The Senate also passed an act that provides funding for an informational campaign to address the presence of rats on campus.

Senator Arman Ismail (COL ’11), who introduced the bill, said that after consulting University Facilities, the GUSA Housing, Facilities and Technology Committee determined that this bill is the most effective step GUSA can take.

The advertising campaign will seek to inform the Georgetown community about the steps Facilities and the Office of Student Housing are taking to address the problem. It also aims to encourage students to take steps to ensure a cleaner campus environment.

“I’m hopeful that the passage of our act is a step in the right direction with respect to addressing the growing rodent problem on campus as well as the overall issue of campus cleanliness,” Ismail said. “Now we have an opportunity for the student body and facilities to work together in the effort to build a cleaner, and ultimately, healthier campus that we can all be proud of.”

The senate also passed a resolution that encourages reform of the Student Code of Conduct in order to distinguish between hate crimes and bias-related incidents by adding category-C hate crimes to the Student Code of Conduct.

According to the resolution, the code should continue to recognize bias as an aggravating factor for violations that are not necessarily criminal acts.

The resolution encouraged recognizing hate crimes, as defined by D.C. law, as criminal acts that are motivated by aggression towards perceived race, disability, marital status, gender, ethnicity, religion and/or sexual orientation.

Senator Josh Mogil (SFS ’11), who introduced the resolution, said he wrote it after meeting with Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson.

ogil said that he believes it is necessary to clarify GUSA’s position on hate crimes.

“This is not going to stop hate crimes, but [it] will give victims rights, ” Mogil said.

The resolution passed after a senate-wide debate concerning whether or not crimes should be considered more severe if they are bias-related or incited by hate. “