The ASUO candidates weren’t the only ones who had their plans put on hold due to the election delay.
As the election results remained up in the air for more than a month, so too did parts of the ASUO’s recommended budget for the student incidental fee, which could not be completed until students had voted on two ballot measures that requested fee funding.
But now that the election is over and the ballot measures have been passed, the ASUO has finally submitted the last pieces of the 2001-02 fee budget to the president’s office — nearly a month later than planned. And with a May 1 deadline to submit the approved budget to the Oregon University System, the administration has been busy at work this week working on the final funding details.
Even with the piles of work and the shortened timeline for completing all of it, however, the office will still meet the deadline, Executive Assistant President Dave Hubin said.
Student incidental fee money is divided between three separate committees: the Erb Memorial Union, the Programs Finance Committee and the Athletic Department. Those committees determine how much money is allotted to help fund student services, such as athletic tickets and student programs, among others. Student groups may also request student incidental fee funding through ballot measures.
By April 1, the major budget committees had submitted their portions of the budget, but the ASUO couldn’t submit its entire budget until the fate of two ballot measures — OSPIRG’s request for renewed student incidental fee funding and the Multicultural Center’s $18,555 request for a cultural programming fund — had been decided. The administration did not receive the final sections of the ASUO’s budget until April 20, Sen. Mary Elizabeth Madden said, because the election for the ballot measures was halted midway through voting and didn’t resume until last week. But Hubin said that because the ASUO had given the administration unofficial segments of the budget earlier, there was some time to evaluate the major portions while awaiting the ballot measure decisions.
“We’re glad that we were able to have the flexibility to accommodate for what’s going on in the ASUO,” he said.
One part of the budget that raised concern last term and that is still being decided dealt with the ASUO Student Senate’s decision to move the Student Activities Resource Office and the Cultural Forum out of the EMU and into the PFC’s jurisdiction. Senators and EMU board members raised questions about whether such a move was legal under the Clark Document, which governs use of the student incidental fee.
Madden said the criteria for how a program can be moved from one budget to another are unclear in the document. As a result, the document itself is under review by the senate.
The senate recommended the switch, which would begin in the 2002-03 academic year, because it believed the Cultural Forum and SARO would benefit more from the PFC budget, Madden said. The EMU budget covers groups such as the Outdoor Program, Club Sports and the Ticket Office, while the PFC includes groups such as the ASUO Executive and the student unions.
“It would allow for more program growth,” Madden said.
EMU director Dusty Miller said that although students always have the right to recommend changes such as moving a program into a different budget section, it has rarely occurred.
“I’ve been here nine years, and this is the first time it’s happened,” he said. “It could change or require changes to the Clark Document.”
University President Dave Frohnmayer has the power to veto any of the recommendations made by the ASUO, but Hubin said that probably won’t happen. The administration has studied the budget extensively, he said, and has not found any problems.
If Frohnmayer approves the budget, it will be passed on to the OUS, which makes the ultimate decision.
Hubin said the administration is giving the budget a very detailed review this week to ensure that everything is in check by the time it reaches the president’s hands.
“There’s no reason to foresee any problems at this point,” Hubin said.