The Cook College Finance Board requested the Cook College Council donate $800 to the Rutgers University Dance Marathon at its meeting Monday.
The Dance Marathon event - which is the largest philanthropic, student-run organization in the state - helped raise over $190,000 last year to benefit children with cancer and blood disorders. Proposed estimates made by the organization indicate expenditures for the event will be in the $20,000 range.
The costs will cover all venues, such as entertainment, food, advertising, decorations and prizes.
According to junior Stephanie Castorina, treasurer of the executive board, the $800 request - which is half of the original $1,600 requested at the council's March 9 meeting - will come from student fees meant specifically for special events and clubs.
"It's really an important cause," said senior Joseph Brodie, vice chair of the executive board. "So of course we're going to say yes [to supporting it]."
The resolution to donate the remaining $800 to Dance Marathon passed unanimously across the board.
Under senate reports, Sen. Ed Ezgilioglu, a junior, said University President Richard L. McCormick announced the University will only receive one-quarter of the costs for salary increases for faculty and staff from the state budget during his last administrative address.
"The other three-quarters are going to come out of tuition," Ezgilioglu said.
On a lighter note, Ezgilioglu said McCormick lauded plans for the "greening over" of the College Avenue campus, which administrators hope will draw an increase in students to the University in coming years.
"[McCormick] wants College Avenue to look like a nice community because he says that a lot of people go there for tours expecting a nice green campus, and all they see is a street with buses and cars going through it," Ezgilioglu said.
If passed, the project will include plans to build a new transit building next to the University Center at Easton Avenue and new academic buildings in the parking lot behind the Grease Trucks. McCormick also hopes to build a large gate between Somerset and Hamilton Streets, Ezgilioglu said.
Under officer reports, Executive Board Chair Justin Fincher, a junior, said the University's involvement in a planned bio-terrorism exercise scheduled for April 6 - in which the Department of Homeland Security asked for student participation - was canceled due to the department's request all volunteers be given a criminal background check.
Fincher said the University pulled out of the exercise because it "cannot ethically disclose information or allow students' information to be disclosed in such a way."
Fincher said he is trying to plan a governing association mixer April 22 at 4:30 pm, to be organized by the council.
The mixer - which should include both new and old members of the University's governing associations - is hoped to be held on President McCormick's lawn, Fincher said.
Under new business, Karen Offsie, a junior majoring in environmental and business economics, ran for the commuter representative seat.
Offsie said she wanted the position because a lot of commuters do not know what is going on around campus and because she wants to "get involved."
The council unanimously elected Offsie to the position.
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