The EMU Board of Directors recalled its own budget Feb. 18 so it could reevaluate how it calculates reserve funds. But the EMU Board Budget Committee has resolved the budget issues and will present its funding recommendation of more than $3.4 million for 2004-05 to the full board at its meeting today.
The EMU Board, which gives students a voice in governing the EMU, is responsible for allocating funding to the many programs housed in the EMU, including the EMU Ticket Office, EMU Food Services and The Break.
EMU Board Chairwoman Christa Shively said the main factor behind the recall was the board’s desire to fully comply with a new Oregon University System model governing reserves.
“For the most part we’ve been really consumed with budget issues,” she said.
Pressure from ASUO student senators, who thought the budget was inadequately scrutinized, also played a role in the EMU budget recall, EMU Board member Rodrigo Moreno-Villamar said.
“(The ASUO Student) Senate was concerned that we didn’t look into detail enough,” Moreno-Villamar said, adding that the budget process has been “extremely, extremely confusing.”
ASUO Student Senate President Ben Strawn said a lack of collaboration between EMU Director Dusty Miller and the EMU Board was also a factor in the recall.
“I saw it as the director’s responsibility to approach the board with the information he had and he didn’t really do that,” Strawn said. The EMU Board Budget Committee wants to build up reserve funds to stabilize the EMU budget. The approach will involve saving incrementally for high-cost expenditures.
“The EMU has always been viewed by (other) student government bodies as self-contained or self-sufficient,” Shively said.
Shively said the reserve funds would enable the EMU to maintain its self-sufficiency by providing financial security in bad budget years or in case of unexpected occurrences.
“It’s kind of like a rainy day fund in certain respects,” Shively said.
The new method of reserve budgeting, prompted by an OUS five-year plan, will enable the EMU to plan for repairs and purchases ahead of time and spread out the costs over several years.
“The budget committee felt that it was really in the best interests of students to implement the OUS model now,” Shively said.
The recall enabled the EMU to change how it will pay for the $180,000 renovation of 71 EMU, a large office vacated by a branch of the University Child Care and Development Centers.
The budget committee had originally planned to pay for the renovation out of a clause in the ASUO Constitution that would have replenished the funds. Instead, the budget committee decided to include the funds in its 2004-05 budget.
The recall also enabled the budget committee to include funds for repairs to the Outdoor Program’s barn that had been put on hold due to uncertainty regarding the University’s plans for a new basketball arena, EMU Programs Representative Gabe Shaughnessy said.