The same as any other elected officials, members of the ASUO have a commitment to fairly and accurately represent those who elected them.
Today, just after the ASUO Senate approved its budget for the next school year last night, ASUO President Amelie Rousseau must seriously weigh that responsibility to students.
Her job description explicitly states:
“The ASUO President is the chief executive officer of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. The President is responsible for the administration of ASUO programs, nominates members for the student-faculty committees to the President of the University, appoints members to executive, administrative and ASUO student committees, and acts as the official spokesperson for students as a whole, within the University and in the larger community.”
And the most important part is the last: being a voice for all students.
Today, Rousseau has the decision of whether to veto the Senate’s budget, which includes all program allocations from the ASUO’s Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee, Programs Finance Committee and Department Finance Committee.
She must decide whether to leverage her power, her voice, to support her constituents.
The students elected the ASUO President, but they also elected the senators.
The Senate voted in favor of its final budget with a vote of 14-3-1. It would take a 2/3 vote to override a presidential veto, and the group would have up to five days after the veto to make its decision.
It would be unwise and unfair to the Senate’s representation of its students, and an affront to the Senate and committee members’ hard work and decision making, for the ASUO President to reject the budget.
Regardless of the personal beliefs of any members of the Executive about the budget committees’ decisions, the ASUO Senate has spoken in favor of funding the groups that the budget committees recommended.
Recalling a budget because of one item of contention — when a strong majority of the Senate has voted that one item down — does not live up to the ASUO President’s responsibility to represent all University students.
All groups were given a fair hearing, and when the Senate confirmed the decisions of those budget committees, it affirmed the decisions of the committee members.
The ASUO President’s reasoning for rejecting the Senate budget must be sound without a doubt, but that is not the case.
The question of permanent funding for the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group has not been resolved to satisfaction, even with ASUO Vice President Maneesh Arora’s recommendation. This proposal does not represent a sustainable solution and would compromise the ASUO’s duty to provide funding to crucial programs.
According to the ASUO’s Green Tape Notebook, the ASUO President and the ASUO Senate must agree on a deadline to submit the ASUO budget to University President Richard Lariviere for approval.
If the Senate does not finalize its budget by March 31, Rousseau has the authority to prepare the budget and submit it to Lariviere herself.
Because it is getting so close to dead week, finals week and spring break, if Rousseau vetoes the Senate’s funding decision, it will slow down the entire process and create undue stress for members of the ASUO and unnecessary attention for her administration.
The ASUO President should take the interests of all University students into consideration as she makes her final decision.
For the sake of the system, the senators and the rest of the student body, the ASUO President should respect the decision that has already been made.
[email protected]
Editorial: Executive must respect Senate decision
Daily Emerald
March 2, 2011
0
More to Discover