On Oct. 25, the ASUO Senate held a meeting in which each department presented its initial budget goals—“benchmarks”—for the upcoming fiscal year.
ASUO’s planned budget includes cutting the 79x bus night service and continuing to fund the Student Conflict Resolution Center.
The ASUO Senate — the student senate of the University of Oregon — has the primary responsibility of distributing the Incidental Fee, also known as the “I-Fee”, which all students pay. The funds from the I-Fee are distributed to various student organizations, services and contracts with external organizations.
The ASUO Senate has three main financial branches: the Programs Finance Committee (PFC), the Departments Finance Committee (DFC) and the Contracts Finance Committee (CFC). All three committees gave their budget presentations to the senate, followed by recommendations made by the Executive Branch, led by student president Chloé Webster.
CFC negotiates contracts made with organizations external to the university. CFC’s proposed budget calls for a cut to the 79x bus service after the hours of 6-10 p.m. due to low ridership –– according to ASUO, the ridership has varied from four to fifteen riders per night. The 79x bus line primarily takes students to and from MLK Blvd — near Chase Apartments and Duck’s Village — and campus.
“This year we decided to cut the Lane Transit District’s bus service 79x,” ASUO Senator and CFC Chair Natalie Hawkins said during the meeting. “There’s been talks about cutting them in years past, but we wanted to ensure that there was an equitable solution to supporting students that live over in those areas, especially for that extended time. So we as a committee are looking into other options, such as Rideshare, to supplement those services.”
The ASUO Executive Branch agreed with CFC to cut the 79x extended service.
“[ASUO Executive] is recommending to cut the 79x portion of our LTD contract because of just how few students were actually using it. For it to be $100,000 for such a low number of students, it didn’t make sense to us,” Webster said on the Senate room floor.
Despite cutting the 79x night service, ASUO hopes to supplement it with other transit options by increasing funding to Cascadia Mobility, the transportation nonprofit that provides PeaceHealth bikes around Eugene.
“We’re absolutely going to provide other options because with the increase of Cascade Mobility, we have the opportunity to add more bike ventures, though we are very understanding that sometimes bikes are not the best way to get to campus,” ASUO Executive financial director Finn O’Donnell said during the Senate meeting. “So we’re exploring options with UO Transportation to facilitate a less ‘wet’ option.”
The Department’s Finance Committee presented its budget, too. DFC primarily funds internal programs within the university that are not student-run.
The Student Conflict Resolution Center, which mediates arguments between students, will continue to be funded by DFC; however, the ASUO Executive Branch recommended that the senate defund the center.
In years past, the SCRC has been repeatedly requested to be cut by the ASUO Executive Branch due to its lack of use by students, but the senate has repeatedly denied cutting this service.
“Our position hasn’t moved –– we still have [the SCRC] defunded, in keeping with our hyper-conservative model for the I-Fee,” O’Donnell said in the Senate meeting. “There should be pressure to keep the I-Fee low because every year UO becomes more and more inaccessible due to the rising price of tuition. If we continue to raise the I-Fee 5% year after year, it’s going to double quickly.”
ASUO Senator and DFC Chair Fisher Isenberg said during the meeting that DFC is firmly supportive of SCRC and that SCRC has demonstrated fiscal responsibility and progress over the last couple of years.
“Additionally, if this program is defunded, it will cease to exist,” he said. “Those programs are going to go away. There’s no ability for anyone else to take those on.”
In the end, the senate voted on Nov. 1 to approve all of the committees’ budget “benchmarks,” including the cuts to the 79x night service and the continued existence of the SCRC.
However, these budgets are not set in stone until their finalization during ASUO’s “Budget Bonanza” meeting in winter 2024. Until then, students can still give their input.
Other budget changes include granting Cascade Mobility a requested increase of 67% ($125,000) in order to create new “hubs” in the Autzen Stadium area in exchange for printing ASUO branding on their bikes. Duck Rides will also be getting an additional van.
OSPIRG, the activist and advocacy group on campus, requested a 62% increase as part of their contract, but due to their unique budgetary situation, they will only be granted a 3% increase.
CFC also chose to increase the Family Co-Op Center, a campus childcare service, by 7% which Chloé Webster said in the meeting was “due to the rising national costs of inflation in childcare.”
Finally, CFC approved a 3% increase for Emerald Media Group. The Emerald, while an independent publication, does get some funding from ASUO through an external contract; this funding was used to provide paid stipends to some Emerald staff this year.
