Student groups slated to lose all stipends under the pay model finalized March 17 by the committee that allocates student fees may receive at least one position each next year as part of the Programs Finance Committee’s latest budget revision.
The PFC may tap unallocated reserves to fund the roughly $5,000 needed to restore one stipend for each of seven programs, including the Nontraditional Student Union, Pit Crew and Students for Choice.
The proposed changes also include pay increases for the ASUO president and vice president positions, which were cut under the current pay model.
The ASUO Student Senate rejected the PFC’s budget on Wednesday after representatives of several student groups expressed opposition to potential pay cuts for some student leaders and reductions in paid positions for some student groups.
With the deadline for submitting a final budget to University administration looming on Wednesday, the PFC must now conclude how to fund the additional positions and finalize its budget by 9 p.m. today. The Senate will hold a special session to rehear the budget at that time.
Committee members met with group representatives Friday to discuss ways to change the stipend model, voting to strike a former stipulation that groups must have at least $3,000 in programming funds to qualify for one paid position.
The PFC also voted to increase the president’s and vice president’s monthly pay from $175 to $400. Those positions were cut from $700 a month when the PFC created the model included in the budget it presented to the Senate.
PFC member Jared Axelrod, who with Senate President James George proposed several of the ideas adopted by the PFC on Friday, told the Emerald most groups received a 44 percent decrease in stipends. He said the new pay for the president and vice president positions was designed to conform to that average.
Axelrod said the committee still must determine whether to use reserve funds, to which the PFC approved a $5,000 increase this year, bringing the account to $15,000.
Multicultural Center staff member Aaron Martin, one of several group leaders to attend recent PFC meetings, said he was impressed by Axelrod’s suggestions and the PFC’s overall proposed changes, calling the Friday session “perhaps one of the most productive” PFC meetings he had attended.
“I was very surprised at the level of acceptance and collaboration going on between group leaders and (the PFC),” he said. “It’s one of the most real solutions and the most time-friendly solutions that will be able to meet this deadline.”
PFC Chairwoman Persis Pohowalla said during the meeting that the PFC will discuss forming a special committee that will allocate some stipends to groups next year on an individual basis in today’s meeting.
ASUO Vice President Mena Ravassipour proposed the committee as part of her recommendation to the Senate.
PFC member Jael Anker-Lagos said funds for the committee may come from overrealized funds, which result from overestimates of this year’s student population by University administrators when calculating student fee rates. But she said University President Dave Frohnmayer would need to approve the use of the funds first.
Martin said some aspects of the committee remain unclear because it is impossible to predict what the committee will decide. He added that students should be aware of whom they are voting for to fill next year’s PFC positions because better communication between the PFC and groups is still needed.
Anker-Lagos said group leaders followed through on their pledge to help the PFC determine how to adjust the pay model, adding it has made the PFC’s job easier.
The PFC will meet at 5:30 p.m. today in the EMU Board Room.

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