Despite initial projections that it would need to cut services, the EMU Board of Directors budget committee approved funding increases for several programs on Wednesday.
If approved by the full board next week, the growth would increase the total budget for EMU programs by 3.76 percent, or $30,187, a figure below the 7 percent benchmark approved for the board by the ASUO Student Senate. The budget calls for EMU program expenditures of about $3.7 million next year.
The committee postponed hearings for programs whose budgets included growth requests because of an accounting error. EMU officials originally predicted they would need an approximately 9.2 percent increase to maintain current service levels, board member Aryn Clark said. Yet later calculations showed the program would only need about a 2.9 percent increase to keep its services intact, she said.
Clark said the first model included money for EMU building reserves, a large item removed from the budget several years ago.
Budget Committee Chairwoman Heidi Zlatek said the board could not return to the Senate for a different budget after it discovered the error because the deadline had passed for adjustments. But she said communication between board members and senators alleviated the need for a new official benchmark.
Clark said the committee reviewed each program’s budget individually to gain an understanding of the budgets before allocating growth “so that we treated all budgets fairly.”
Committee members came to the Wednesday growth meeting with prioritized lists stating which programs they believed should receive growth, Zlatek said.
Zlatek said the board asked groups to identify potential revenue-generating areas in their budgets, as well as areas to cut.
She said groups kept those areas in their budgets after the board lowered its benchmark projection.
Zlatek added that committee members met with representatives of the programs requesting growth on Tuesday before forming their priority lists for Wednesday.
ASUO Vice President Mena Ravassipour delivered the executive recommendation, suggesting the committee pass a current service-level budget including funding for the EMU Information Center and a half-time or three-fourths-time daytime custodian, according to minutes from the meeting.
The committee voted 4-3 to approve $11,700 for EMU Facilities to hire additional custodial help. The EMU currently has 7.6 nighttime custodians and no daytime custodians, Zlatek said.
It also voted to grant $10,948 for the Child Care and Development Centers, $5,355 to extend the EMU Club Sports director’s pay to cover an additional two months of work per year and $1,484 for the EMU Administration. The committee approved $500 for the Outdoor Program for its new student orientation and $200 for the EMU Board vice chair stipend for next year as well.
The committee did not allocate increases to UO Scheduling and Events Services, the UO Ticket Office, the EMU Craft Center, the UO Cultural Forum and several Club Sports teams.
During the meeting, board member Gabe Shaughnessy expressed concerns that the last budgets to be discussed received unequal treatment because some committee members had said the board had already approved lots of growth.
But Clark told the Emerald that while at the beginning it seemed as if some members “weren’t voting off their priority lists,” the process was fair.
“I don’t think that that was a problem,” she said. “I think everyone pretty much stuck to their prioritized lists and tried to give growth to programs they felt would better serve students.”
Clark said she didn’t expect problems when seeking approval of
the budget from the full board
because board members have
communicated openly.
“In past years, I know that we always thought there would maybe be a little more talk at full the board than there actually was,” she said. “I think we’ll hopefully have a really good
dialogue about our budget to make sure it’s the correct budget to send
to Senate.”
During the Senate meeting Wednesday, Senator Jack Crocifisso urged the Senate to extend the board’s deadline for submitting its final budget by several hours, saying the full board meeting will be a “circus.”
Zlatek said the process of approving the budget before the full board will depend on what questions the board has.
“I don’t think it will be a circus,” she said.
Clark said she hasn’t talked to many senators about their thoughts about the budget, noting that senators shouldn’t be surprised the budget proposal includes growth.
“I’m not sure how people are going to respond to that,” she said. “I just think we’re going to have to go with good reasons as to how this helps students and how growth items are a good use of the incidental fee.”
Zlatek said the committee approved growth that is “vital” to keep programs going and improve their services to students.
“It’s not growth that is unnecessary,” she said.
Clark said the budget process was successful.
“I think we were responsible this year with using the incidental fee
and trying to keep the fee down for students,” she said.

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