The Student Recreation Center will not receive a portion of money allocated during a February Student Senate meeting because rec center officials withdrew the request, ASUO President Jared Axelrod said.
At a February 7 meeting, the Senate allocated $72,000 from the over-realized fund to go toward the rec center’s “capitalized equipment” reserve fund, which is mandated by the Oregon University System and used to replace equipment that costs $5,000 or more. The rec center is in the third year of a five-year plan to create the fund.
Axelrod signed off on the request, which was then passed to University President Dave Frohnmayer. It stopped there when rec center officials noticed a discrepancy in what the money would go toward.
Physical Activity and Recreation Services Director Dennis Munroe said that after the request was passed by the Senate, rec center officials realized some of the equipment they planned to replace with the money was actually worth less than $5,000, meaning it could not be replaced out of the reserve fund. Less expensive equipment must be replaced out of the rec center’s general operating fund.
Rec center officials wanted to be as transparent as possible and wanted the Senate to be aware the money would not go toward replacing the equipment listed on the original request, Munroe said.
Munroe said he was unsure whether he would need to resubmit the request.
“It’s not something I’m pressing for at this point,” Munroe said. “The need is still there; we have to meet the OUS mandate for our equipment reserves.”
Munroe said the rec center was willing to proceed however the student government wants.
“We probably will just need to work through the next budget cycle a year from now for finding a strategy to fully fund our equipment reserves,” Munroe said. “It would have been nice, but sometimes attempts to be fully upfront about everything relating to your budget (are) your own worst enemy.”
Last week, the Senate allocated $118,705 from over-realized funds to go toward helping the rec center avoid a deficit. Munroe said he wanted to emphasize the two allocations are “clearly, cleanly, distinctly separate issues.”
– Jobetta Hedelman