Funding for student travel to two legislative conferences was struck from the ASUO’s Executive budget Friday on the insistence of ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz.
Dotters-Katz said he requested the alteration to his office’s budget to increase the amount of money next year’s president will be able to use to sponsor initiatives by student programs. He also said he hopes the move will combat corruption within the ASUO.
The move will divert funds set aside to finance travel to the Oregon Student Association and United States Student Association conferences. Students who attend the conferences lobby the state and federal legislatures on behalf of college students. The ASUO sets aside money for the conferences, but Dotters-Katz controls the money that pays for transportation to each of the 10 conferences held by the student associations each year.
Students who have lobbied in the past decried Dotters-Katz’s decision, saying it would hurt the legislative voice of Oregon students. ASUO Sen. Carina Miller, who has acted as chairwoman of the OSA board of directors, said the conferences are vital to pushing for student interests at the statewide and national levels.
“It causes the legislature to remember that there’s a lot of students in the state that really care what’s going on,” Miller said.
Dotters-Katz said the meeting in which the funds were diverted was difficult for him because he was recommending the budget for next year’s president, despite not knowing who that would be. He and ASUO Vice President Johnny Delashaw slouched in their chairs and passed around a bag of sour candy at their end of the table in the EMU Board Room while Programs Finance Committee members hunched over their calculators trying to arrive at a budget for his office.
Dotters-Katz said he was skeptical of the process used to select student representatives at the conferences. When asked how many representatives had been selected in the past, he took the opportunity to criticize his predecessors. “In the past, it’s dependant on how many friends of the executive wanted to go,” Dotters-Katz answered.
Miller denied the selection process was corrupt and said Dotters-Katz’s moves would make things difficult for whoever succeeds him.
“Whatever comes up next year, it will be difficult to deal with for the president now,” Miller said.
[email protected]