By Jocelyn Fowler
Reporter
Racers, start your mattresses.
At Thursday’s Student Senate meeting, the Alpha Tau Omega Bed Races bill was formally passed 41-1. Student Senate will provide $5,000 in funding for the event.
The lone dissenting senator of the evening was Houston senior Daniel Lin.
Lin said his opposition to the bill relied solely on the lack of deference to precedence in regard to the event’s T-shirt sales.
“Usually to finance, for most budgets, we have the organization use part of their revenue from the T-shirt sales. Most events have T-shirt sales to cover the expense of their own T-shirt sales, and they’re not doing that,” Lin said. “It’s just my personal thing. I like to follow a set of precedents.”
Representatives of Alpha Tau Omega cited the success of their charitable efforts in past years as a compelling reason to deviate from precedent. Last year’s Bed Races and the Chi Omega Chili Cook-Off raised more than $18,000 dollars for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Fort Worth sophomore Dallena Nquyen and Rockwall senior Nick Pokorny, authors of the bill, said they believe the contribution to charity is the most significant reason to fund the event. “I think the best part is the charity,” Nguyen said. “When we were writing the bill they were most focused on getting the most money for charity.”
Pokorny also emphasized the event’s importance as a Baylor tradition. “ATO has done this for nine years now,” Pokorny said. “It’s become a big tradition here.”
