In 2022, the ASUO President quietly worked with UO administrators to take the EMU out of student control. Two years later, student leaders are still trying to deal with the fallout.

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Control over the Erb Memorial Union’s finances changed in the winter of 2022, when then-Associated Students of the University of Oregon president Isaiah Boyd decided to transfer the building from ASUO’s budget into the control of UO administration. While evidence shows that the reasons for the transfer were legitimate, Boyd acted without the knowledge of the ASUO Senate, according to interviews and records obtained by the Daily Emerald.
The Senate initially passed the budget authorizing the EMU transition on Jan. 29, 2022, but then attempted to reverse it in an emergency Senate meeting. The effort failed, however, because then-UO President Michael Schill approved the budget transferring the EMU.
The ramifications of that decision continue to reverberate almost two years later.
Today, the final approval of the EMU’s budget is no longer done by ASUO. The budget approval is now done through the Tuition and Fees Advisory Board, which students do not vote on.
This means that the university can raise the amount students pay for the EMU without any student vote.
Internal presidential transition documents for current President John Karl Scholz obtained by the Emerald state that while the EMU transfer was “necessary for budgetary reasons,” it was also cause for tension between the student body and the administration, with UO acknowledging that students saw the situation as “shady.”
“[The EMU transfer] was done with very little oversight,” UO student worker activist Max Jensen said. “Students had just paid 90 million dollars of Student I-Fee money to remodel the building, and then gave it away for nothing to the administration, with the bulk of the discussion happening in private meetings between ASUO President Boyd and Kevin Marbury.”
Jensen said that students lost their autonomy after the transfer: such as the loss of professional printing services and the ability to improve contracts within the EMU for better working conditions.
Marbury, Boyd and Schill could not be reached for comment.

HOW THE TRANSFER HAPPENED

The ASUO Senate was notified by the EMU’s financial director about the EMU’s rising labor and utility costs as early as Oct. 22, 2020. If left unresolved, the EMU’s ballooning budget would start to consume funds meant for other student organizations. These financial burdens would later be cited by UO as the primary reason for the EMU transfer.
Concerns about the EMU’s expenses would not resurface until over a year later.
Emails obtained by the Emerald through a public records request show that Isaiah Boyd and the then-Vice President of Student Life Marbury had discussed the EMU transfer in private meetings on several occasions as something that might have to be addressed in the future.
The earliest emails dated from late December 2021, in which Boyd and EMU administrators discussed the trend of declining EMU revenue and rising labor costs that were outpacing inflation. On Dec. 21, 2021, Boyd, Marbury and EMU administrators had a meeting where they discussed this further.
The EMU’s financial administrators and Boyd continued to email each other after December 2021. At a second meeting on Jan. 14, 2022, Marbury made the determination that if the EMU were to be transferred, it would have to happen the very next week at “Budget Bonanza” — ASUO’s final budget approval meeting, according to the documents.
On Jan. 21, 2022, Boyd emailed Marbury final questions regarding the EMU transfer before making his final decision. He requested that there be no room costs for student organizations, and that any proposed changes in services to the EMU be approved by or consulted with ASUO.
Marbury responded that no significant changes will be made to the EMU’s operations. The ASUO Suite would continue to be occupied by ASUO rent-free, and that all student organizations currently with EMU space at the time would have no charge to their rooms.
Boyd agreed to transition the EMU out of the Incidental Fee, the ASUO-controlled fee that all students pay.
Boyd did not notify the rest of ASUO until Jan. 22, 2022, the day after he agreed to the transfer. In the email, Boyd explained how the decision would alleviate the budgetary concerns of the EMU as well as ASUO. He ended the email by acknowledging that some ASUO Senators would disagree with his decision, but that they should reflect on the “why” of their disagreement and to do so in a respectful manner.
On Jan. 25, 2022, Marbury emailed then-UO President Michael Schill that he and Boyd had reached an agreement to transition the EMU off the I-Fee, and for his “prompt approval” of the decision to transfer the EMU out of time constraints.
President Schill finally approved of the EMU transfer on Jan. 27, 2022. The next day, the EMU agreement between Marbury and Boyd was sent to the Tuition and Fees Advisory Board.
Two days later, the ASUO Senate held its annual Budget Bonanza meeting. The budget they approved reduced the EMU’s budget to $0, and in doing so, approved the transfer.
Following this meeting and outcry from various student groups, ASUO Senate held an emergency session on Feb. 18 — a “second Budget Bonanza” — where they attempted to reverse the transition.
But that attempt failed — the ASUO Senate presented more than one final budget to the university president to sign, and President Schill signed the budget removing the EMU from the I-Fee, removing it from 72 years of student financial control.
As of 2022, students no longer vote on the EMU’s budget — that process is now done by the administration via the Tuition and Fee Advisory Board.

WHAT’S HAPPENED SINCE

Two years after the divorce of the EMU Board from ASUO on the administrative side, student leaders in the EMU Board and ASUO were left to clean up the mess — the remaining threads between the two bureaucracies — from their ends. 
That process continues to this day.
Chloé Webster, the current ASUO president, served as an ASUO Senate representative on the EMU Board from 2022-23.
Currently, there are still dedicated ASUO Senate seats on the EMU Board. But since winter 2023, Webster has been tasked with redistributing those seats.
“Because the EMU is no longer funded by the I-Fee, it does not make sense to include the EMU Board in the ASUO governing documents or include EMU Board Senators on Senate,” Webster said. Therefore, mentions of the EMU Board in the ASUO Constitution will need to be removed.
To do this, ASUO is planning for a special election to occur during winter term.
Students had power in the EMU Board via four dedicated ASUO Senate seats and additional program seats. However, the transfer of the EMU stripped the student seats on the EMU Board of their voting power, as the final approval of the EMU’s budget is now approved by the Tuition and Fees Advisory Board.
This means that if the EMU’s budget is increased to pay for the wages of EMU workers, students will not have a role in voting on it.
Internal efforts are also underway to change the EMU Board’s bylaws, given that it is now separate from ASUO.
Audrey Kalman, a graduate student who is the chair of the EMU Board, says the group of students who run the Board are committed to finding ways to best utilize the EMU.
Kalman says she and Webster are looking to determine how “relevant” the EMU Board is to ASUO, and if it should still be a “responsibility for any senators.” 
“ASUO and EMU Board are now two separate bodies. So the argument could be made that we don’t have to respect ASUO’s rules and have those people on the board,” Kalman said.  “However, that would be a very unpopular argument to make, because that would be seeking conflict in a way that I certainly don’t think would be necessary.” 
According to Kalman, the removal of the Vice Chair and potential other roles is due to the unequal division of work between the positions. With the Board’s previous structure, members were “not fulfilling their obligations,” necessitating changes to the EMU Board’s internal structure, which are ongoing.
“We’re tailoring the suit to fit the board. I’ve told the board we’ve now taken longer than the United States in drafting our Constitution,” Kalman said.