In what should have been their last meeting of the term, Student senators heatedly debated funding for the Student Recreation Center and the Programs Finance Committee. Insults flew and emotions ran so high that members of the PFC broke into tears.
Wednesday’s meeting began on a somber note as Senators observed a moment of silence for Brian Reams, the University student who died following a hit-and-run accident last Sunday, but senators faced a long agenda that included discussion of the rec center bill, several special requests and the final budget of the Programs Finance Committee.
Although the Senate does not normally schedule meetings during dead week, the Senate’s failure to come to a vote on the rec center bill led Senate President Sara Hamilton to schedule a meeting for next Wednesday at 7 p.m. to discuss the initiative and said attendance will be mandatory.
Senate Bill 28
Much of the evening’s debate was dedicated to Senate Bill 28, which has been under review by the Senate rules committee for the past two weeks and would change the way money to fund rec center operations is allocated.
The contentious, hour-long discussion of the bill took place two hours into a meeting that had a long agenda and ended up lasting well past midnight.
At the start of discussion, Sens. Athan Papailiou and Natalie Kinsey questioned why other Senators had met with rec center representatives without telling the rest of the Senate.
“The behind-closed-door politics of this bill are unacceptable,” Papailiou said.
Richard Pryor, chairman of the Student Recreation Center Advisory Board said it was wrong to characterize the SRC as secretive.
“I feel it is completely unfair to use words like ‘sneaky’ and ‘back-door politics’ when the rec center has been up-front and transparent from day one,” he said. “We have been doing everything we can to outreach to Senators and when one or more answer our pleas, there are accusations of dishonesty made.”
At last week’s meeting, senators were asked to send recommendations for the bill to Sen. Jennifer Lleras, who heads the Senate rules committee. Lleras said that she did not receive any recommendations and re-formatted the bill herself while attending a conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this week.
Tension was high when Sen. Jacqueline Justice said she was bothered by hearing Senators utter expletives to themselves and direct curse words at specific people. Sen. Kinsey told Justice she could file grievances against the Senators she heard swearing.
ASUO President Jared Axelrod expressed frustration with the idea of postponing discussion of the bill further, and said that everyone necessary to the process of drafting an acceptable bill was already in the room.” This inefficiency I’ve seen regarding the rec center has been going on for too long,” Axelrod said.
The problem was not the bill itself, Senate President Sara Hamilton said, but the fact that dialogue had taken place outside of the Senate.
“I would really encourage the Senate to think about what the real problem is here,” she said.
Sen. Justice also invited senators to come voice their opinions at a meeting of the Senate committee charged with discussing possible solutions for the rec center’s budgetary woes. That meeting is scheduled for Friday at 10 a.m.
Senators eventually discussed the possible configuration of the Student Recreation Center Advisory Board, which would possibly oversee the budget if the bill is passed.
Pryor told senators he was offended by the suggestion that another student-run group could not oversee budgets.
“Do you think the Senate is the only body capable of overseeing student money?” he asked.
Although there was some consensus on the configuration of a budgetary committee, senators stopped short of deciding whether the fee from the budget would continue to be funded by the incidental fee or a newly created institutional fee. There was no vote on the bill.
PFC budget increases:
Total budget – $5,610,258 (a $151,270 increase)
Contracted services – 6.09 percent
Departments – 3.06 percent
Student programs – .24 percent