Partially because of the rocky start suffered by the ASUO after last year’s debauched Sunriver retreat and partially because thousands of student dollars will be saved, the ASUO Executive has decided to not hold the
annual finance retreat off campus this year. At past retreats student government officers have learned the history of the incidental fee to respective duties of each position.
Last year’s mishap, which involved smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, a note in the house rental guest book and the misuse of more than $3,000 in incidental fees, made the retreat a controversial event. It plagued the ASUO even after officers’ terms ended both because it lost trust with the student body and because officers never fulfilled their self-proposed punishments.
ASUO President Adam Walsh is standing behind the principle that he and Vice President Kyla Coy instilled in the minds of voters throughout the election process: Incidental-fee reform is necessary to make sure it is first and foremost benefiting and being used in the interest of the student body.
“Instead of a retreat to Sunriver, our administration would have a bonding experience in the skylight of the EMU,” Walsh promised at the April 6 elections debate, according to an Emerald article by Parker Howell (ODE April 7, “Executive hopefuls spar in debate”).
“You have to look at the purpose of the retreat. It is to learn their respective systems and budgets,” Walsh stated recently in response to why there will not be an off-campus retreat. “Team-building and getting away is second, but learning the finance system is primary, and that can be done just as effectively on campus.”
The Executive will hold workshops over a two-week period in October. Each workshop topic will have two time slots for senators and finance committee board members to attend.
“We’re looking to accommodate people,” Walsh said.
Finance Coordinator Nicholas Hudson, who ran against Walsh and Coy in the Spring elections, said in an e-mail that his experience with finance retreats has been beneficial in terms of team-building and goal-setting, but an out-of-town retreat is “not the best way to develop those skills.”
“(It) can be done at a different time and not on the students’ dime,” Hudson wrote.
This “mini conference for student government leaders,” as Hudson called it, “will aid them immensely, while benefiting the process and the student body.”
This year’s workshops will cost significantly less than it has in previous years, as the only expected expenses will be snacks.
“I’m pretty sure we don’t have to pay for speakers,” Walsh said, and the EMU space is already available to the Executive, and all incidental fee-paying students, for free.
The only questionable factor is attendance.
“The reason to have a retreat off campus is that people won’t show up otherwise. They’ll leave campus, get phone calls in the middle of meetings and find excuses to leave,” Walsh said, “and I see validity in the team-building and getting to know each other, but the big reason it was taken off campus was because it was difficult to get people to attend when it’s not mandatory.”
Walsh added that nowhere in the job description is attendance mandatory for either a retreat or workshops, but said he trusts that the elected officers will learn their respective duties in order to best serve the student body.
“If they want to do a good job they’re going to show up,” Walsh said. “If they don’t show up, it’s only a reflection on them. I have faith in student government officials that they want to do the best job they can do.”

[email protected]