The Women’s Center presented itself to the ASUO Summer Senate Thursday in order to request $300 for a graphic designer. With funds quickly diminishing in the summer surplus, the government body was already uneasy about giving away such a large chunk of money.
The position needing to be filled is just a temporary job that would end before fall term begins. This graphic designer job description entails working with some pre-existing templates and simply changing vital information. Unfortunately for the Women’s Center, their main graphic designer does not live in this country, and the group does not know anyone else who knows how to run the design software.
“It’s not the time. It’s the software,” Erin McGladrey of the Women’s Center said.
This leaves the center with old information that needs to be updated before the start of fall term so the group can get all of their information out during the Week of Welcome.
Some senators were upset the group did not plan ahead and instead put the Senate in a tough position to decide whether they should fund a last-minute project.
“If you knew you were going to need this, why didn’t you do it in the spring?” Sen. Ian Needham asked.
To answer, McGladrey referenced a hectic late spring that was filled with events and other tasks that occupied most of the designer’s time.
A recommendation of using next year’s funds to cover the cost was quickly thrown out the window because the group’s budget is already fully allocated for the next fiscal year.
Sen. Lindy Mabuya then recommended trying to find a student to work for free who could then process the work and place it in their portfolio.
While McGladrey agreed the group wanted to work with a student, she said they had tapped out their volunteer pool.
Senate agreed to cut the funding in half and transfer $150 to the Women’s Center because the body felt the original request was too high and decided the amended amount could get the job done.
Before passing the amended motion, Sen. Mabuya wanted to make her frustrations heard.
“I don’t feel that it is our responsibility to subsidize any group’s extra-curricular needs,” Mabuya said. “Not just the Women’s Center. Groups need to budget for summer needs.”@@well, sometimes %$#^ happens@@
Sen. Needham shared the frustration noting the actions of some groups could harm other groups playing by the rules.
“It’s not fair that a group won’t get money for a good reason if we have to back other groups who aren’t willing to spend their money,” Needham said.
Both senators voiced their opinion that groups — who tend to think that budgets are associated with the school year — need to refresh their understanding of budgets. This causes problems because budgets are organized through a fiscal year that ends in June and begins in July.@@well one thing that would help is if asuo sent a message sometime during the year to all the groups they fund@@