ASUO Senate allocated more than $30,000 in funding from its surplus account for club sports teams that qualified for national tournaments, approved a resolution about Willamette Riverfront development and approved a few minor changes to the ASUO stipend model at the final meeting of the 2010-11 Senate.
Senate started off with two line item transfers from the Black Student Union and Mind the Gap, both of which passed without any serious opposition. @@http://pages.uoregon.edu/bsu/@@ @@http://www.uomindthegap.com/@@
The Chinese Philanthropic Leadership Association then requested $200 of surplus funding to help fund the CPLA’s “Flea Market” event — profits from which would go on to support the group’s altruistic work in China, group members said. This request was unanimously approved. @@http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chinese-Philanthropic-Leadership-Association-University-of-Oregon/165408190173930@@
The Arab Student Union asked for $3,500 to pay for the honorarium of comedians for a “Comedy for Peace” campus event. Because $12,000 rolled back into the Senate Over-realized Fund, which was announced at the beginning of the meeting, Sen. Kerry Snodgrass recommended the Senate use these funds for the one-time campus event. @@http://www.facebook.com/UOARABS@@ @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Kerry+Snodgrass@@
Only the issue of how quickly the funds could be procured was raised, because ASU’s event is taking place next week. However, event presenters said time wasn’t an issue with the people they hired, as long as they could provide proof that money had been allocated. The Senate approved this request with 12 votes in favor, two opposed and two senators abstaining from the vote.
The main issue of contention of the evening was an $11,160 request from the women’s club ultimate team. The group’s provided budget didn’t include everything the team was requesting, because of confusion coming from the larger Club Sports organization.
The Club Sports Executive Committee had told the team not to request money from the ASUO for lodging. Though hotel costs were removed from the budget, the club was still requesting funds for the hotel, much to the chagrin of Sen. Kaitlyn Lange. @@http://clubsports.uoregon.edu/committee@@ @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Kaitlyn+Lange@@
“If you were told not to put hotel on the Senate budget, why are you using money from Senate (for hotel costs)?” Lange asked, adding, “I would ask you to be more upfront next time because it looks really, really sneaky.”
Several senators were cautious not to put too much of the blame on the presenters and wanted to keep the conversation civil, because they had been directed in a certain way by the program.
“I don’t think they’re trying to be sneaky; I just think they’re confused like the rest of us,” Sen. Kristina Harding said. @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Kristina+Harding@@
The motion was amended four times, before carrying at $8,210, with nine for, six against and one abstention.
Conversely, the men’s lacrosse and men’s ultimate teams’ requests faced little opposition. They were approved because their requests were for just travel expenses and fundraising, or money from the Club Sports organization paid for everything else, giving men’s lacrosse $17,895 with 12 votes in favor and four abstentions and men’s ultimate $6,627 unanimously.
University graduate student Paul Cziko returned to Senate with a resolution which commended University President Richard Lariviere for considering building the next building of the Oregon Research Institute in a location not directly along the Willamette Riverfront. There were some minor wording changes to the resolution before it was approved with 15 votes in favor and one abstention. @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Paul+Cziko@@
The final substantive discussion of the 2010-11 group of ASUO senators concerned changes put forth by the Program Finance Committee to the ASUO stipend model.
Senators debated more in-depth issues involved with student government pay until the conversation became more practical: There were certain elements in the proposed changes that needed to take place at this meeting.
The approved changes included raising the pay of PFC members, who hold more than 100 hearings with ASUO programs, and the chief of staff, who holds more responsibilities than other members of the Executive staff.
Following the discussion, officers gave their updates, altogether conscious that this was the final business of this school year.
“I just wanted to thank all of you for being here,” Senate President Zachary Stark-MacMillan said. “We’ve done a lot this year.” @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Zachary+Stark-MacMillan@@