On Wednesday night, the Student Senate meeting took numerous twists and turns, making it one of the most controversial sessions of the year.

The main happening of the night could have been a question and answer with Interim University President Alan Marble, but that wound up being overshadowed by confusion with an appropriation concerning the Native American Student Association (NASA) that amounted to $237.

The appropriation was denied in the financial committee because it was determined that it was turned in late. However, after debate in Wednesday night’s meeting it was determined that the NASA did nothing wrong and had the material in on time, but that it had been overlooked.

“Did we not do the same thing with the Saudi Club?” said Senator Brooklyn Lampe, referring to reimbursing registered student organizations. “From my understanding I thought the paperwork had to be presented before the event, not that it had to be voted on.”

“I believe it was turned in on time. It was just accidentally overlooked,” said President Noah Triplett.

After numerous discussions back and forth, there was a motion to have the appropriation moved back to the committee. It was immediately seconded and voted on. It was passed into the committee with ease.

The debate hadn’t ended.

Senator Raymond Dunaway said, “I motion to reconsider that motion under the premise that I don’t think all of the senators understood that we could pass that right here and right now.”

It was motioned and seconded to bring the appropriation to the floor to be voted on. Senate members were informed that it would take three-fourths vote to pass the appropriation, which meant 14 members must vote to pass it. Only 13 voted to pass it without the committee’s approval.

“I make the motion to send it back to committee so it can be reconsidered and come back in a better vote because they haven’t done anything wrong,” said Senator Corey Garr.

The final decision ended up being that the financial committee would re-address the appropriation in its next meeting.

Marble addressed Senate to start the meeting, asking them to help him and the rest of the faculty in solving the issue of student retention rates. He then allowed members of Senate to ask him questions concerning Southern.

Senate also observed the loss of Missouri Southern Assistant Football Coach Derek Moore. Dunaway informed everyone of a planned fundraiser to start a scholarship fund for Moore’s 7-year-old son. Garr followed that up with a request for a moment of silence to observe Moore’s passing.