The Student Senate passed a bill Wednesday allowing marching band members access to five additional rows of seating at football games.
The bill that Campus Community Committee Chair Morgan Donnelly wrote Sunday to give the band five rows in section 113 at Carter-Finley Stadium to compensate for growth in the band.
“When I first started working with the band, we had 212 students, and we had all of section 113,” Paul Garcia, assistant director of the marching band, said. “When we grew to 239 students, I received an e-mail saying the top five rows were no longer ours.”
Before the bill was debated in the Senate’s first meeting of the year, several students expressed their opinions on why they band deserved the additional 80 seats.
Tom Nelson, a sophomore in aerospace engineering, said these tickets would not be taken from the student section, because they would still be going to students.
“We pay the student fees for student seats,” he said. “We deserve them as much as any other student.”
Addressing his expectations for a larger band next year, Garcia said he will not ask for more seats.
Also in favor of the bill, Student Body President Jay Dawkins said that he didn’t agree with the previous administration’s decision.
“As I step back, I realize that we can right a wrong from the last administration that took those seats away from the marching band,” Dawkins, a senior in civil engineering, said.
Once debates began, some senators voiced their disapproval at the lack of diverse representation at the meeting.
Maritza Adonis, sophomore in political science, said she didn’t feel the bill was advertised among the student body, and that many people were surprised.
“I received the bill through e-mail Tuesday night, and I began discussing it with some of my constituents the next day,” she said. “Most of them were very shocked to learn that the band wanted all of Section 113.”
Adonis said she wasn’t against the bill, but that she felt all the issues weren’t properly addressed, and it shouldn’t have been fast-tracked.
“I felt like I didn’t have enough information on the bill,” Adonis said. “[The senate] was so busy worrying about the band, we didn’t get enough input from other students. I love the band, and I think they do an awesome thing. As a Senate, however, we’re required to represent the interest of every student on campus, and I don’t think we did a very good job of that.”
Lauren Gayden, junior in chemistry, said she agreed with Adonis, and she didn’t have enough information on the bill to form an opinion.
“This bill just came out of nowhere,” Gayden said. “I had questions about the bill that weren’t addressed because it was fast-tracked.”
Gayden also said that she talked to other students and many of them were opposed to the idea.
“If we had done a better job to inform the student body of the bill, I think we would have gotten better feedback.”
Despite Adonis’ and Gayden’s opposition to i, the bill was fast-tracked and the Senate voted in favor of the bill 39-1-2, according to Greg Doucette, Student Senate President and senior in computer science.
Donnelly, a junior in political science, said she was surprised at the overwhelming outcome of the vote.
“With all the talk before the official debate began, I was surprised that so many people were for the bill,” she said.