The last meeting of the ASUO summer Student Senate went just as summer seems to go: quickly.
In a meeting that lasted just longer than half an hour, the 10-member summer senate blasted through four special requests Wednesday, granting three and placing the fourth on hold until the full senate begins meeting next week.
Women’s Center Office Coordinator Lori Brown submitted a request asking that $900 — the pay for one of the center’s student employees — be transferred from the leadership account, which contains the stipend money for student employees, to the group’s work study account.
Generally, when students are eligible for work study, their salaries are budgeted into the work study account.
In this case, however, the student was hired during spring term, which was too late to budget formally.
“When money goes into work study, the federal government essentially provides matching funds [to the student],” Sen. Peter Watts said.
But by moving the money from one area to another, Watts said the group would have to pay a three-percent kickback to the government for the work study position. That’s money that the Women’s Center would have to take from other parts of its budget.
He urged the senate to think carefully about the decision. The Women’s Center’s request is the first of its nature for the new school year, and any decision made will set a precedent for the rest of the year, Watts said.
Claiming that the senate can expect between 50 and 100 such requests throughout the course of the year, Watts explained the consequences of transferring money into the work study fund that had not been allotted during the normal budget-setting process.
He said a person doing the same amount of work and receiving the same stipend as other positions could potentially earn four times as much money when figuring in the government’s addition.
Brown suggested decreasing the students’ stipend enough so that the kickback had no effect; with that, the issue became more complicated and the senators determined this was a decision best left for the full senate the following Wednesday.
“I don’t think summer senators should decide this because it is a precedent,” Sen. Jennifer Greenough said.
On the other side of the coin, the University forensics team, which has not come forward with a special request in the last five years, was granted $1,558 from the surplus for a speech and debate tournament at the University of Alaska.
The tournament pulls together the top 10 teams in the nation, and this year the University’s is among them. The money will go toward registration, travel and lodging for the team.
Additionally, the Oregon Future Lawyers Association garnered $70 from the surplus for refreshments at two events, including Thursday’s visit by Peter DeMuniz, a candidate for the Oregon State Supreme Court.
The ASUO Designated Driver Shuttle was able to split up the $16,000 it received from its ballot measure in the election last year into specific segments of its program, including $10,000 for maintenance.
This was the last meeting of the summer senate, which handles only special requests for money.
The first order of business for the full senate will be to nominate and elect both a president and vice president for the 2000-01 year.