The recent revelation that Lunar New Year Festival was allocated $5,500 by Student Union for a fireworks display has enraged many students. Criticisms leveled against LNYF and Student Union were that the spending was wasteful, that SU privileges cultural groups over all others and that $5,500 was an obscene amount of money to be spent on an event.

Student Union Treasury reversed its rule of refusing repeat speaker appeals after a straw poll of members at its meeting on Tuesday. The need to change the standard arose out of complications from the new SU Speaker Series, which was created to encourage groups to appeal for high-cost speakers at the beginning of the first semester rather than throughout the year.

With the most recent announcement that Sofia Vergara would not be coming to Wash. U., students are once again disappointed that a big speaker has cancelled after having high initial expectations for a year filled with Al Gore, Vergara and John Legend.

In the coming semester, student will be able to take a break from churning out papers to churn out something quite different: butter. On Tuesday, Student Union Treasury recognized the Washington University in St. Louis Butter Churning Society (WUChurn) as a Category II student group.

On Tuesday night, a multitude of student groups submitted appeals to Student Union Treasury to bring speakers to campus. That, combined with last Tuesday’s voting, brings the list of funded speakers to: Al Gore, Daphne Kwok, Mukherjee, Deanne Bell, Jess Weiner, John Legend, Amy Chua and Sofia Vergara.

Student Union Senate voted to table the Office of Judicial Programs’ proposed changes to the University’s Judicial Code at its weekly meeting Wednesday. This is the first time in almost two years that SU has voted against a University proposal, SU officers estimated.

Student Union has allocated $150,000 for its newest professional staff member, a technology coordinator, and his professional resources. The coordinator will be responsible for working with student groups and overhauling the SU website. While the Student Life editorial board sees this as a helpful resource, we have suggestions to help ensure that we get the most out of this new position.

The proposed Student Union budget for 2011-2012 will be presented to Senate and Treasury on Wednesday for a vote. The joint SU session will be held in Simon Hall at 9 p.m. and will be open to all students.

Students filled the Danforth University Center Tisch Commons yesterday for Student Union’s annual inauguration ceremony. The new SU executives, senators and Treasury representatives were sworn in for the coming semester. SU representatives, administrators and faculty watched the swearing in of the recently elected UP slate.

Student Union Treasury voted to allocate funding toward an individual appeal for U.S.-Mideast Hip Hop Exchange Week. The week will feature hip hop artists from the Middle East and St. Louis and will take place from April 10 to April 17.