On March 7, ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz reviewed and submitted the final 2014-15 Incidental Fee budget for University of Oregon President Michael Gottfredson to approve.
Should Gottfredson approve, the total budget for the next school year will be $15.24 million, which is right on the 3.5 percent increase that the UO Administration recommended for the upcoming year. The incidental fee will be at $215.25, which is seven dollars more than this year’s fee, which pays for student activities and services.
The Athletic Contracts and Finance Committee, Departments Finance Committee, Programs Finance Committee and the EMU Board had budgets approved by the ASUO Senate on March 5, and the approved budgets from senate have not been changed by the ASUO Executive.
EMU Board’s budget is $6 million at a 4.41 percent increase, and the DFC’s budget is over $1 million with a 3.84 percent increase. Those committees were above the 3.5 percent increase, but the increases were balanced out with the ACFC’s 1.63 percent increase at $4 million, and the PFC’s budget of $2 million at a 1.2 percent increase.
“Our priority with the budget from the beginning was to protect student jobs and promote sexual violence prevention,” Dotters-Katz said. “This budget actually creates student jobs, and establishes an institutionalized Sexual Violence Prevention Center, so we’re very happy with the budget.”
The Sexual Violence Prevention Center was thrown into the PFC’s budget a week before the committee needed to present their budget. Even with the extra $42,000 that needed to be allocated to the center, the PFC was able to do it and still be well below its cap.
“I’m very proud of the dedication and hard work of this year’s PFC group, and we are all thrilled we could allocate extra money to programs at the end of the season,” Senator and PFC board member Taylor Allison said. “It was a tough year financially, and we wished we could have allocated more, but we were committed to working with the three other committees to ensure we stayed below the cap.”