The meeting
ASUO Senate approved special surplus requests during Wednesday’s meeting, in addition to talking about public records with University Public Records Officer Elizabeth Denecke before moving on to other Senate business.
The decisions
The ASUO Senate approved a transfer within group and the creation of a new line item for the Appropriate Dispute Resolve Board for a regional conference. It was unanimously approved.
After much deliberation, a request from the American Marketing Association was tabled. Several senators did not like how the conference was only advertised to AMA members.
“I’m concerned that it’s only open to students who pay for the AMA membership fee,” Sen. Kerry Snodgrass said.
Although this was addressed, the conference is in fact open to non-AMA students; they simply have to pay more. Senators also said they didn’t like the fact that this specific conference was not advertised outside of the club.
People of the Pacific put forth a funding request to pay for lodging for an in-state conference, and the $240 request was unanimously approved.
The Senate also approved a majority of Dance Oregon’s request, giving the group $4,000. This request was approved by a vote of 10 affirming and six opposing.
The Multicultural Center made a request for more than $8,000 from surplus monies along with transfer funds to pay for a set of speakers. There were two amendments before the final $3,500 was approved, with 10 approving, four opposing and two abstaining.
Discussion
Next, the Senate heard from Denecke as she offered advice on what they should do with ASUO public records.
Denecke’s primary piece of advice was for senators to always use their University e-mail accounts for professional discussion.
“That way people can do a search that takes the burden off of you,” Denecke said.
Basically, she suggested that Senate records requests should go directly to her office so it can work on redacting confidential content in order to protect students’ identities and privileged information. If senators use their University e-mails, it will be easier for the University’s public records office to access the information.
Senators also discussed the limited amount of finances left in the surplus fund. The discussion point came after $15,000 was allocated to different groups at the last Senate meeting. There is just more than $80,000 left in the account, and the Senate still has to see spring term requests. Traditionally, there have been a number of Club Sports requests that arise during spring term as teams start to find out if they will participate in national tournaments. Sen. Marissa Garcia had an issue with this and thought there should be some way to institutionalize these tournaments into the Club Sports budget.
“There should be a pot being assigned to (Club Sports), whoever needs it can go, not one to each sport. When they need more, they come to surplus,” Garcia said.
There was no decision made on a proposal to include funding for national tournaments in the Club Sports budget, and the Senate tabled the discussion.
Next week
The Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group was denied funding by the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee on Tuesday night, but ACFC’s total budget will be heard next Wednesday. OSPIRG members have been lobbying senators since their initial hearing; the Senate can vote to overturn the ACFC’s final budget at their hearing with the committee.
The Saudi Student Association didn’t have any presenters while the American Marketing Association’s request was tabled. Those requests will be heard again next Wednesday.
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