President fights for La Raza 

In his final act as Associated Students Inc. president, Toby Sexton announced that he plans to veto the budget for the 2000-2001 academic year due to the A.S. Senate's decision to deny La Raza funding. 

In the budget, which the Senate approved at its May 3 meeting, the student organization was denied funding because of its failure to file its grant application on time. 

"It wouldn't feel right to send forth a budget that doesn't agree with my philosophy of looking at external circumstances students face," Sexton said. "Not everyone is on scholarship, so they shouldn't be punished for working or going to school." 

Since Wednesday's meeting was supposed to be the final one of the year, an emergency meeting was tentatively scheduled for May 22 to vote on overriding Sexton's veto. 

If the Senate does not gain the needed two-thirds majority to override the veto, the A.S.I. would be without a budget to present to the university's President Robert Maxson for approval. They would then be forced to revert back to this year's budget, which would mean that money collected for the Beach Pride Referendum could not be allocated, according to A.S.I. Treasurer Rochelle Williams. 

The move shocked Williams.

"Personally I didn't know about this and no one else knew about it," she said. "This is going to cause a problem for the whole corporation. It almost seems like this is Toby trying to go out with a bang."

Sen.-at-Large Michael Braga was also angered by Sexton's decision. 

"I will not have La Raza bully us around, and I will not have the president bully us around," he said. "It took a lot of time to make this budget." 

Sexton said he could empathize with La Raza's inability to meet the filing deadline. 

"People have a lot of responsibilities," Sexton said. "They work full time and go to school full time, they're going to miss deadlines occasionally. If I were in their situation, I might miss these deadlines too. You have to look at the exceptions. If you make exceptions, make them for the students."