SGA passes funding regulations in response to bronze SuperFrog statue

Largely in response to the way the new $50,000 SuperFrog statue was funded, the bill requires any individual or group who spends more than $15,000 on an event or structure to receive permission by a majority vote from the Student House of Representatives.

The bill was originally proposed by College of Communication representative Rachel Adcock, senior, and AddRan College of Liberal Arts House representatives Michael Dabbs and Parker Fleming, seniors. 

“We wrote this because we believe students should have a voice in how large amounts of money are spent in House,” Fleming said.

The final bill that passed had several noticeable differences from the original, however. The original language of the bill required that spending more than $20,000 would need a 2/3 vote of approval from the House of Representatives.

Adcock said the bill would create regulation for spending the Student Body Fee, which students directly pay for. The Student Body Fee is $45 per semester.

Dabbs said the funding of the Student Memorial through SGA was a good use of extra, or residual, money. However, he said the new bronze statue of SuperFrog, currently on the first floor of the Brown-Lupton University Union, was a use of funds that should be prevented in the future.

The statue was commissioned by the Student Body President and the Cabinet, Dabbs said. The Student House of Representatives did not have the opportunity to vote about the statue's commission.

“We saw a very good example of how of a project was funded through House and through residual funds,” Dabbs said. “We also saw an example that was not well done in our opinion.”

Student Body Treasurer David Belpedio said that the statue was funded from residual funds.  He estimated the final costs to be around $50,000.