The Oregon Commentator, a conservative campus publication, has not always been known for seeing eye-to-eye with the student government on fiscal issues. However, that doesn’t mean the publication’s staff isn’t interested in an open dialogue.
Tuesday afternoon Ted Niedermeyer, editor in chief of the Commentator, hosted an open discussion for the public and members of the ASUO on fiscal responsibility.
Niedermeyer said he wanted to discuss a range of issues surrounding the use of the student incidental fee. The Commentator has been vocal about rising student incidental fees, currently $202 per term, which pay for student government provided services such as bus passes and tickets to football games.
The Commentator also criticizes the process by which that amount is set from one year to the next. The Student Senate first makes a recommendation about how much each of three major budgets should rise for the following school year, then each delegates money within those guidelines.
“Both sides are really misinformed about each other’s positions and (the discussion) is really stuck in this place of having to demonize the other side,” he said. “I think if we get people together in an unstructured environment, I’m hoping it will lead to a little more understanding of where everyone is coming from.”
Student Senate Vice President Jonathan Rosenberg said he enjoys speaking with the Commentator and hearing the staff’s opinions on these issues.
Although Niedermeyer said attendance at the beginning was more sparse than he had hoped for, members of the ASUO Executive and Senate did come to share their opinions.
Slade Leeson, public relations coordinator for the ASUO, said that much of the problem with reforming the fee allocation process is the high turnover in student government jobs.
“If you’re going to have some sort of large-scale reform, and do it in the middle of the budgetary process – it’s something you devote multiple years to doing,” he said.
Leeson said that new members come into ASUO jobs and have their own ideas about what to do and may not be interested in the same types of fiscal ideas as their predecessors.
Many of the Senators present agreed with Niedermeyer that a big issue with keeping incidental fees low is that high fees keep people, particularly minorities and the poor, from wanting to attend the school.
“Fiscal responsibility is about keeping barriers to education as low as possible,” Niedermeyer said.
Senate President Sara Hamilton said issues beyond the ASUO’s control, such as low state support for the University and legally mandated wage increases make it difficult to keep the fee from growing.
“It does raise a lot of philosophical questions,” she said. “What is the fee for? Is the fee a good place to fill in the gaps of budgets beyond our control?”
Others who were present agreed that this is especially a problem with contracted services and departments, where the bulk of the incidental fees go to paying wages.
ASUO Finance Coordinator Madeline Wigensaid that more than $1.6 million of the incidental fee goes to fund wages, which are set by the state and by unions.
“We only have a certain level of control,” she said.
Other topics discussed included reform of the process of allocating money for stipend positions to student groups, something that has been discussed for several years, the controversial Student Recreation Center budget, and the $800,000 in over-realized funds.
Niedermeyer said that he would have liked more public debate but had only himself to blame for not doing more advertising for the event. He said the discussion, while a smaller first step than he would have liked, was “excellent.”
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