In the first meeting of its two-month tenure last Wednesday, the ASUO Summer Senate earmarked $10,000 toward ASUO President Amelie Rousseau’s sustainability center project for a full-time sustainability coordinator by moving the money into Rousseau’s 2010-11 budget.
Senate voted to earmark the money to go toward the 2010-11 ASUO Executive budget instead of putting the money in the HLC for safekeeping as originally planned, which gives Rousseau and ASUO Vice President Maneesh Arora the go-ahead for seeking more funds from other sources to pay for the position.
Before ending their term as ASUO executives, ex-President Emma Kallaway and Vice President Getachew Kassa authorized the money to be spent from the 2009-10 executive budget to the “Special Events and Projects” line item, which in turn was to go to the Holden Leadership Center.
The HLC is not required to spend any leftover funds to the ASUO surplus on July 1, the day most ASUO groups must return surplus money. By putting the funds in the HLC, it would have allowed the ASUO to effectively transfer and use funds when they could not have done so otherwise.
Earmarking the $10,000 would keep the money out of the surplus and make it unavailable for student group funding next academic year.
This is the first time that ASUO Senate has earmarked money since the 2009 Spring Senate when senators earmarked funds to keep the Knight Library open 24 hours, five days a week for the 2009-10 academic year.
Rousseau is seeking a total of $40,000 for the full-time professional staff position, of which the $10,000 from the ASUO would be the first money allocated. Besides the ASUO money for a sustainability coordinator, ASUO Executive is looking to get $10,000 from University administration and fundraise an additional $20,000 by the beginning of fall term.
“(The sustainability coordinator) would be a professional staff member who would coordinate and support all of the environmental groups on campus,” Rousseau said, adding that there are about 15 environmental groups currently associated with the University.
The vote to put the money into the Holden Leadership Center and the funding for the sustainability coordinator position was mixed. Of the six voting members of the seven-person Summer Senate, four Senators voted yes, one abstained, and one voted no. Senate Chair Kaitlyn Lange did not vote.
By earmarking $10,000 from the 2009-10 ASUO Executive budget, senators took potential surplus money away from being redistributed to ASUO groups in the 2010-11 academic year.
“We’re making an exception to ourselves when it’s something no other student groups are allowed to do,” said Senator Chris Bocchicchio, the only senator to vote no. “I just thought we figured out a way to do it so we wouldn’t have to bend any rules.”
Senator Ian Fielding, the only abstaining senator, suggested that ASUO Senate pick up the issue of giving the money for a possible sustainability coordinator at the beginning of fall term. However, Arora, who attended the Senate meeting, said, by the time the Senate met in the fall, it would be too late to get the rest of the money and have the coordinator start working in the academic year.
“I just feel like we’re wrapping ourselves up in green tape,” Senator Blake Sedgley, who voted yes, said on the debate at the Senate meeting.
The sustainability coordinator position is the first step in Rousseau and Arora’s proposed sustainability center, which is a specific goal in their term as ASUO executives.
Rousseau said that besides finding the funding to pay for a sustainability coordinator’s salary, the other obstacle is finding space in an already cramped EMU.
“(The sustainability center) will be a communal space for people from environmental groups to hold meetings, hang out and collaborate on sustainability projects,” Rousseau said.
Because of a news editor’s error, the original article (“ASUO gives go-ahead to full-time green post”) misstated the voting of funds toward the creation of a sustainability coordinator. The ASUO Summer Senate voted to earmark $10,000 for the potential position, and by doing so will give ASUO executive Amelie Rousseau an extra $10,000 in her 2010-11 executive budget. The Emerald regrets the error.
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