ASUO President Emily McLain said Friday the Executive branch and Sexual Assault Support Services are closer to finalizing a contract for the 2007-08 fiscal year that should have been completed months ago.
SASS currently has no contract, is not providing services to the University and has not been paid any money this year. Last year, SASS’ contract was also the last to be completed. The 2006-07 contract was not signed by former President Jared Axelrod until July 8, 2007- a week after the fiscal year ended.
In the 2006-07 year, SASS provided services with no contract and was paid in two lump sums, one in September and one in July when the contract was signed.
“We’ve been done for months with all the other contracts,” McLain said. “This is not normal.”
Earlier this month, the Programs Finance Committee adopted the Executive’s recommendation to decrease funding for the contracted service by more than 11 percent for the 2008-09 year.
Committee members were so confused by the contract and the rhetoric on both sides that they asked SASS to come back after their first heated hearing. When SASS representatives returned for a second hearing, it took an hour and a half for committee members to cut the funding as the Executive had recommended.
“I really feel the PFC is being jerked around a little bit here with things that are being worded differently from everyone,” Student Sen. Steven Wilsey said at the hearing.
The PFC merely allocates funds to contracts negotiated by the Executive. A special election to be held this term would create a new committee for dealing with contracts.

Financial reporting

The whole process with SASS has turned into a bit of she-said, she-said between McLain and SASS Director Maria Paladino. McLain says SASS failed to send financial reports to the ASUO. SASS sent one invoice in July at the end of the fiscal year.
Paladino dismisses those charges.
“There’s no lack of accountability from SASS,” she said. “A really big deal was made over a small thing, basically.” Paladino said the invoices were “basically two sentences that say ‘please pay us this amount of money.’”
Paladino attributes the lapse to last year’s fiscal manager who was sick and had surgery. The contract states SASS will send invoices each term.
McLain said, “We didn’t get any (invoices) last year. That’s how you get your money.”
Paladino said that every year a new Executive looks to change SASS’ contract for some reason. She called the ASUO Executive “four students making decisions for the entire student body” and said she hopes “they make decisions in the best interest of the entire body who need us.
“It’s unfortunate that each year we get people who want to negotiate everything about our contract,” Paladino said.

Contract fulfillment

ASUO Programs Coordinator Liora Sponko said she sees some validity on both sides. “The Execs that I’ve worked with have brought up various issues with SASS fulfilling the services outlined in the contract,” she said.
Last year’s Executive tried to clarify SASS’ contract and get the group to provide more on-campus services, Sponko said. According to the 2006-07 contract, SASS was to give at least one presentation to residence halls or student groups, which it did not do.
“Because the contract in 06-07 wasn’t fulfilled, especially after so much work was done on it, this Exec has worked even more to make the contract clear,” Sponko said.
McLain said contract items that were not fulfilled, such as the presentations, are being taken out of this year’s contract.
McLain characterized the struggle with SASS as the first of many contract re-negotiations that need to be continued by future Executives. She admitted the process will be “daunting” and said since one contract has taken all year, it will be a while before all are made transparent enough to see what services students are actually paying for.

Service duplication

As dismissive as Paladino was about her group’s financial reporting, so was McLain of a claim she had made that SASS duplicates services offered elsewhere on campus. That charge became a major topic of SASS’ second budget hearing.
“This isn’t even the main issue,” she said, but it “turned into a squabble.”
McLain said the ASUO had originally entered into a contract with SASS because, at the time, there was little discussion of sexual assault on campus. Now there are programs in the Office of Student Life and the Sexual Wellness Awareness Team, she said.
“The difference is where the campus is at now in terms of awareness of sexual assault,” she said.
But SASS representatives maintained the difference is in their training program, which took a cut in the budget just approved by the PFC.

Training program

Paladino said students were trained in the program for University credits and preparation for their career and educational goals. The program also trains those who go on to train all of the other groups on campus that promote awareness of sexual assault, SASS representatives said.
“I don’t know how much of that we’re going to be able to offer in the future,” Paladino said. “This is the only place in Lane County where you can get this type of training.”
A draft copy of SASS’ 2007-08 contract allows for “at least 2 hours but no more than 6 hours of training to the staff of the University’s Women’s Center on origins, causes, effects of and resources for sexual violence.”
McLain said SASS will continue to be compensated at an hourly rate for their training. She said she doesn’t deny the value of SASS and sees them as the best “trainers for trainers” – those who go on to directly train students in other organizations.
“I’ve said from the very beginning of all of this that SASS is an excellent provider of crisis services,” McLain said. A new contract will maintain a crisis services hotline and patient advocacy in hospitals and legal situations, she said.
“They’re very good at that. That’s what they’re lauded for,” she said.
Paladino said she wants SASS to continue doing the work it has always done on campus in the areas of preventing sexual assault.
“If we can’t do the prevention work, it’s just sad,” she said. “Our workload will increase.”
Asked if she meant sexual assault would increase as a result of funding cuts, she said, “College students are the highest-risk group. And we just don’t understand why the ASUO makes it so hard to provide the services students are asking for.”
Sen. Lauren Zavrel, who emotionally defended SASS’ mission at the budget hearing, said that while she doesn’t fully understand the negotiations, it hurts her to see an organization that deals with the prevention of sexual assault have its funding cut.
“To see that bottom line and to see it go away – that’s just really hard, and it made me upset,” she said.
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