Although the blackboard used to outline the agenda for Tuesday night’s Student Committee on Political Action meeting read “SCOPA: An Endangered Species,” the committee worked as though its future was secure.

Details for the “Political Awareness Festival” being held Friday Oct. 14 at the East Lagoon are in the final stages, said SCOPA Co-chairman Mike Goldstein.

The three-hour festival will feature food, music, and various speakers representing all political ideas, keeping with the non-partisan theme, Goldstein said. The open speaker list includes Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Coghlan, State’s Attorney Phil Dimarzio and attorney Jerry Shapiro, he said.

The rain location for the festival will be the Holmes Student Center Pow Wow Room, SCOPA Co-chairman Rene Lilly said.

Goldstein said the budget for the festival is almost $320. The budget will either come as an executive allocation or directly from the Student Association, he said.

The festival is being built around a national voter education bus tour sponsored by the United States Student Association.

Goldstein said SCOPA is looking into the possibilities of funding the event through an executive allocation because he is concerned that the budget might not pass the senate if the senate is simultaneously considering eliminating SCOPA.

“The bus is coming whether (SCOPA) is ready or not,” Lilly said.

However Gregg Bliss, SA vice president and Internal Affairs Committee chairman, explained at the meeting the proposed bylaw changes made by the IAC and the proposed bylaw changes made by SA Senator Gary Stittgen, and how they would effect SCOPA.

“Regardless of what happens in the bylaws, (the senate) cannot stop (SCOPA) from existing,” Bliss said. “I think the (IAC) is holding tight with the modification of the original motion…but unless (the IAC) comes up with some type of meduim level (SCOPA) will be gone.”

The proposal would make SCOPA more accountable to the SA than it is currently.

In other business, SCOPA addressed a proposal that would give students more input into the Holmes Student Center.

The proposal would change the advisory board governing of the student center to a governing board, Goldstein said.

Goldstein said that under the present system, the director of the student center is not obligated to act by the advisery board’s “suggestions.” Under the proposal, a governing board would be composed, representing all of the groups who use the student center, he said.

The proposal was made by “a group of students, including myself and (SA President Paula Radtke),” Goldstein said. The proposal would “give control not only to students, but to everyone who uses the center.”