This June, the ASUO Senate conducted a special meeting to vote about whether or not it would allocate $600 of last year’s surplus to give 11 summer senators stipends for the month of June.
The conflict of interest was obvious — a room full of senators deciding if they were going to give themselves money.
“It was so polarizing,” Summer Senate Chair Kaitlyn Lange said. “We should’ve never been in a situation where we were having to vote on our own pay.”
To her knowledge, the professional staff, including adviser Consuela Perez, offered the Senate no advice or recommendations.
The members were left to battle themselves and how their actions would be received by the student body.
The senators were stumped by this proposition, and it seems as though just a little advice would’ve eased a lot of tension. But the professional staff remained quiet as a mouse.
So, seven senators abstained from voting, ending in a five-to-four ruling in favor of the proposal.
Though the go-ahead was granted, the votes were so narrow, and the debate was it such a deadlock, that the senators decided not to file the paperwork to receive the stipend.
They figured it was in the best interest of the group to leave the money alone. They agreed to meet twice a month, unpaid, through the entire summer.
Though their decision was morally sound, it was very risky.
In the past, summer senates were not paid. Sen. Jeremy Blanchard said this lack of pay caused them to struggle to accomplish things.
The stipends wouldn’t have been much: $50 to each senator and $75 to each chair (“Senators settle for summer stipends” ODE June 2nd).
For Lange, who traveled from Portland twice a month to attend summer senate, the stipend wouldn’t even cover the cost of travel.
The pay was, by no means, 11 senators asking for a raise, or demanding money for a new pair of shoes.
Rather, it was a way to pressure the summer senators to attend and do work worthy of students’ mandatory fee money.
Without payment, the resulting summer senate was clumsy at best.
“It went pretty quickly to a fail,” Lange said. Summer senate met quorum less half of the time.
Senators often left early, skipping out because of other summer time commitments. Some even ignored repeated texts and e-mails from other senators that questioned their whereabouts.
ASUO Senators are supposed to represent the University of Oregon student body’s best interests. They have made a commitment to the student and should not break that commitment under any circumstances.
Still, these senators should be paid for their work — be it fall, winter, spring or summer term.
Students may not always agree with its politics or its rulings, but the ASUO is a lot of hard work for students year-round.
The time ASUO members spend coordinating, getting to and conducting those meetings is time spent away from their jobs, away from their homework and, for summer senators, away from their precious leisure time.
Compensating someone who is doing work is never a bad investment.
If ran smoothly, summer senate has the potential to be quite productive for this community: the extra time and reduced meeting times could give senators an opportunity to prepare themselves for upcoming issues, formulate ways increase student body awareness of the ASUO, and even establish a connection to the campus’s concerns on a person-to-person basis. The senate had a plan to begin sending out e-mails to students to see what they had on their minds, but, because they didn’t have a consistent attendance, they were unable to follow through.
This year’s summer senate was a poor showing, but it did manage to accomplish a couple goals; including establishing a table at Intermingle on Sept. 24 from 5 p.m. to midnight, approving various special requests, and creating a project committee designed to scout the campus for concerns and issues to be addressed fall term.
“We did good things, but the minimum of our potential,” Lange said.
Next June, if the ASUO decides to try summer senate again, its members should seriously consider the outcome of the past years when voting on payment.
Paying people to do their jobs just makes sense — assuming they are actually doing it, of course.
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