The Student Senate passed the Programs Finance Committee’s 2008-09 budget Wednesday night, but postponed the passage of the Athletic Department Finance Committee’s budget because some senators did not have adequate time to examine it and raised questions about donations to the athletic department.
The PFC, which allocates student fees to all student groups, departments and contracted services, was approved for an increase of $149,352. While the PFC budget totaled $4.6 million in the 2007-08 year, the roughly $1.1 million allocation to the Student Recreation Center was removed from the PFC purview at the outset of the budget season.
The total approved budget is just more than $4.5 million.
Senators voted overwhelmingly to strike more than $14,000 from the budget that would have funded health insurance and fee remission for a graduate teaching fellow position at the Men’s Center.
The position may be funded by the University. Senators agreed that the position could be paid for with the Senate’s over-realized funds if it is not granted what is called “institutional priority” by the graduate school.
The other major sticking point in the budget was a $25 per month raise for associate justices of the ASUO Constitution Court. Currently, justices receive stipends of $125 per month. Staff members in the Executive branch receive the same amount. Most senators make $150.
Chief Justice Matt Greene said stipends to the other governmental bodies had raised over time while the justices’ had stagnated.
There has been tension all year between the court and the other branches of government. Senate Vice President Patrick Boye suggested that senators lower their stipends to $125 per month rather than give con court justices a raise.
PFC Chairman Jacob Brennan said the committee members saw no reason to refuse the raise in stipends. He said that because stipends are not considered compensation for hours worked, the committee could not compare the justices’ workloads to those of senators or executive staff.
ASUO Vice President Chii-San SunOwen and Sen. Billy Hatch said stipend raises should have been considered comprehensively so student programs could have also benefited.
“This went over programs’ heads,” SunOwen said.
Chief Justice Greene said higher stipends were necessary to fill seats on the court. “If we don’t do our jobs, all programs suffer,” he said.
Sen. Dan Feldman, who is usually one of the more reserved senators, rejected the idea that each branch of government should be paid the same amount.
“Parity? I mean, like, screw parity,” he said. “If (student groups or executive staff) wanted parity they could have gone to PFC to request it.”
ASUO President Emily McLain pointed out that no one from the executive branch had entered in to the discussion or was requesting a raise.
Feldman backed her up and concluded his argument by saying, “If a man’s not hungry, don’t give him food.”
The budget passed with the con court raise intact and without changes to other stipends.
Senators also spent time revisiting the budget of the Veterans and Family Student Association, which was discussed by the PFC four times in lengthy and heated sessions.
On Feb. 11, the PFC passed a budget of almost $7,000 for the group, while new groups traditionally receive $300.
The committee then rescinded its decision and lowered the budget to $4,555. Senators debated how “arbitrary” the $300 amount was and whether the budget should have been decided by bargaining up from the usual amount or bargaining down from the VFSA’s request.
Sen. Nick Meyers, who sat on the committee, said the entire process was arbitrary and the only fair way to evaluate groups would be to start their budgets at zero every year.
“You can make a less arbitrary system,” Sen. Kate Jones said. “You had the ability to do that this year but you chose not to.”
The VFSA’s budget was not changed in the recommendation passed by the Senate. The entire PFC budget now goes to McLain, who can accept or reject it.
The executive’s recommendation for the budget was higher than the one passed by Senate. It included the GTF benefits but did not include the raise in stipends.
The Athletic Department Finance Committee, which negotiates prices for student tickets to football and basketball games with the athletic department, was directed by the Senate to go back to the department and ask more questions about compulsory donations attached to ticket prices.
Sen. Hatch said the budget was made available to senators on Tuesday, but should have been available two weeks prior to the meeting. He encouraged anyone who had not read it to abstain from voting.
“If it were a student group we would defund them,” Hatch said.
Senate President Athan Papailiou urged senators to not jeopardize student tickets and implied that the executive branch had also been late in submitting budgets.
Vice President SunOwen told him the executive’s recommendations were not budgets and did not have to be submitted in hard copies. She later chastised Papailiou for making “underhanded and juvenile political jabs.”
Senators decided to meet again, preferably before the end of finals week, to make a decision on the ADFC budget.
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Senators postpone ADFC’s budget
Daily Emerald
March 6, 2008
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