The Student Senate is nearly out of money after spending more than $735,000 in over-realized funds and $2,768 from surplus in a five-hour meeting Wednesday night. The meeting went on despite grievances challenging the validity of Tuesday’s meeting of the over-realized committee, which violated Oregon Public Meetings Law because notice of the meeting was not given to interested parties 24 hours in advance.
The purpose of Tuesday’s disputed meeting was for committee members to review each proposal for over-realized funds, which come from overestimates of the incidental fee students pay each term, in order to recommend which proposals be funded by the Senate.
Emerald Editor-In-Chief Laura Powers filed grievances with the ASUO Constitution Court against committee Chairman Patrick Boye, Vice Chairman Billy Hatch and the committee as a whole for not providing notice of the meeting. The grievances asked that the committee meeting be held again “according to public meeting law.”
At a glance
| The Student Senate approved funding for the following organizations from over-realized funds Wednesday night: Campus Recycling $34,963.65 UO Sustainability Coalition $5,666.22 Outdoor Program $18,085 KWVA transmitter $19,962 KWVA digitizing $40,000 Moss Street Children’s Center design bridge and shed $18,000 Moss Street mini bus $56,722 Cultural Forum emuLAN $11,244.44 Cultural Forum concert $21,000 EMU Facilities windows $93,909.58 Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living $112,510 Divisi women’s a capella group $500 UO Students for Global Health $6,300 Sam Dotters-Katz 24-hour library proposal $54,000 MEChA 40th anniversary conference $38,644 Service Learning Program Alternative Spring Break $10,000Multicultural Center $35,000 Outlaws diversity moot court competition $3,150 Alternative Dispute Resolution Advocates $5,000 Black Women of Achievement Hair Show $64,050 Oregon Review of International Law $8,900 Women’s Law Forum $8,800 Oregon International Law Project $500 Sustainable Advantage Library $37,000 Black Student Union $16,750 Full Circle Waste Project $15,000 |
On Wednesday afternoon, the court e-mailed Boye and the Senate and ordered them to not implement “any rule, policy or resolution currently under review in actions filed by Petitioner Laura Powers.”
Senate President Athan Papailiou first told senators that all over-realized requests were removed from Senate’s agenda because of the order from the court. Sen. Nate Gulley said the over-realized requests could be heard as surplus requests, and the meeting went ahead as planned.
Papailiou later said the question under review by the court was whether senators had fulfilled their duties and did not relate specifically to the requests, so the meeting could continue. He recommended, however, that senators refrain from talking about the consensus decisions made at the disputed meeting.
Gulley, who had mentioned the decisions reached by the committee several times, said he was referring to conversations between committee members during a longer period of time and not only during Tuesday’s meeting. Gulley then proceeded to introduce ASUO President-elect Sam Dotters-Katz’ 24-hour library proposal as “one of the proposals that took considerable discussion” at Tuesday’s meeting and was one committee members “couldn’t come to a consensus on.”
Powers said she planned to file another grievance challenging the validity of the Senate meeting because of the repeated references to the disputed committee meeting.
24-hour library proposal
Dotters-Katz’ proposal would fund a nine-month trial of 24-hour, five-day-a-week access to Knight Library. Dotters-Katz touted the proposal as one that would benefit non-traditional students and provide data for students to present to the University administration as proof that students need a 24-hour library.
Discussion of the proposal was the longest and most contentious of the meeting, lasting longer than 30 minutes. The proposal eventually passed, 6 votes to 5.
Gulley said he was in favor of keeping the library open all night but viewed the proposal as “a slippery slope to administration making us pay for things they should be paying for.”
Sen. Sean Jin said he thought the proposal would benefit more students than any other proposal under consideration, and Sen. Lee Warnecke said, “we are offering a hand to students who need help.” Warnecke said even if the service was not funded beyond next year, next year would be the best time to have a 24-hour library because of an expected influx of freshmen.
Others, such as ASUO President Emily McLain, were more critical. McLain said the real crisis students will face next year will be a lack of housing on campus. “Why don’t we help fund an apartment building we know the University is frantically searching for?” she asked.
The proposal would take student fees and put them into an account students do not control, McLain said, and could instead be used to fund cultural events the University does not support financially.
She also questioned if anyone in the University administration has guaranteed the funds would be used for the purpose of extending library hours.
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“How do you know this is even going to happen?” McLain asked Dotters-Katz. Dotters-Katz said he had been in contact with the library administration, who in turn had been in talks with the University “for years” about funding such a plan. He said his contact at the library is Laura Willey who McLain immediately identified as the assistant head of access services.
McLain asked for names of University administrators who have approved of the plan, given that the library is not a separate entity from the University. Dotters-Katz could not provide any names.
Sen. Dan Feldman said the University administration was not “out to get students” and Warnecke accused Gulley of “fear-mongering” for saying the library funding would lead to students paying for sidewalks next year.
ASUO Vice President Chii-San SunOwen said student government did not know how the administration felt about funding the library.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen students go organized up to the administration and say we want this open 24 hours. We haven’t even asked,” SunOwen said.
Sens. Jin, Diego Hernandez, Michael Reta, Boye, Warnecke and Feldman voted for the library funding. Sens. Hatch, Samantha Brodey, Sarah Oaks, Gulley and Kevin Parks voted against it.
Club Sports at a loss for funding
Club Sports women’s ultimate Frisbee team and baseball teams qualified for national competitions, but Senate surplus funds are too low to reimburse the teams for the cost of attending the competitions.
The teams needed the permission of the EMU Board of Directors before asking Senate for surplus funds. Club Sports Coordinator Sandy Vaughn said the teams qualified for nationals the day after the board met, which prevented them from going to Senate for two weeks.
In the interim, Senate spent nearly all of its surplus. Vaughn said money was borrowed from other teams to pay for the trips, but if it is not replaced Club Sports will end the year in debt.
Senate approved $1,000 of surplus funds for each team, but the competitions cost more than $13,000. Senate also allocated $768 to the Veterans and Family Student Association for a memorial ball.
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