Compared to last week’s debate over the EMU’s budget, which lasted longer than an hour, it took the ASUO Student Senate less than 10 minutes to present and vote on next year’s budget for the Athletic Department Finance Committee.
In the past few weeks, the ADFC reported a possible stalemate between itself and the Athletic Department. The department wanted a 12 percent increase in its student incidental fee funding. The senate, however, approved a 5 percent increase last fall, as recommended by ADFC senators.
In the end, the senate granted the ADFC $1,092,672, which is $52,032 more than its budget this year — exactly the 5 percent approved in the fall.
“We haven’t given the Athletic Department an increase since 1996 or 1997,” said Sen. Greg Zimel, who sits on the ADFC. “Meanwhile, their price of tickets has skyrocketed.”
Senate President Peter Watts explained that the “good-faith agreement” between the Athletic Department and the ADFC was that students pay 50 percent of the “fair market value” of athletic tickets. Right now, he said, they are paying less than 40 percent.
“We can’t maintain 0 percent increases when ticket prices are going up,” Watts said.
The ADFC made another “good-faith agreement” with the department to continue increasing its budget substantially throughout the next few years until students are paying 50 percent of ticket values.
Negotiations are ongoing over whether the department will charge for two pre-season games before school begins in the fall — games that are not currently funded by the incidental fee.
In other business, it was a night of returned visitors as two groups that tried and failed in the past finally left the senate with their special requests granted.
The Student Bar Association came before the senate a few weeks ago to ask for $9,232 to help initiate a law school yearbook. The senate granted the request — less $1,500 from the original amount — but ASUO President Jay Breslow vetoed it. When the senate voted on overriding the veto to give the SBA its money, it could not garner the two-thirds majority it needed.
As a result, the SBA returned Wednesday asking for considerably less: $5,267. The amount decreased because the SBA sought and garnered additional revenue for the project from the alumni association, law students and the Knight Law Center.
Sen. Eric Bailey, who voted against the SBA’s first request this year, said the senate should give the group funds because it had made such an effort to raise money.
“I think that they’ve done a tremendous job going and finding outside resources,” Bailey said.
The United States Student Association also had been before the senate earlier this year, but its request and subsequent appeal both failed. The third time was a charm for the USSA, however, for it received $3,107 from surplus to help send 12 students to a legislative conference in Washington, D.C.
Also on Wednesday, the ASUO Programs Finance Committee completed the last of its hearings by granting the Black Student Union $19,171 for its budget next year — a 14.8 percent increase.