The ASUO Student Senate approved the ASUO Athletic Department Finance Committee’s $1.37 million budget, a controversial special request from the Black Student Union and a slightly less substantial name change for a senator in its meeting Wednesday.
The meeting started off on a lighter note, with Sen. Colin Andries motioning to change “Johan” to “Jonah” on the meeting’s agenda. Sen. Jonah Lee’s name was unfortunately misspelled in the document. The motion passed with Sen. Joe Jenkins providing the single dissenting vote for unknown reasons.
BSU weathered a rough debate in its special request for $999.99 for the Black Heritage Fashion Show, an event it co-sponsors with the historically black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. Because the sorority is not allowed to use its own raised funds for events, representative Natasha Holstine explained, its fashion show is co-sponsored and funded through BSU. BSU was unable to raise the necessary funds this year, however, because many of its traditional sponsors were unable to donate this year.
Some senators felt uncomfortable with transferring the requested funds since Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. is putting on the fashion show and the group is not incidental fee-funded, as groups that receive surplus funds are supposed to be.
“It’s kind of like a loophole,” Sen. Rebecca Shively said.
But Lee saw the situation differently.
“But this is BSU’s request … they’re (Alpha Kappa Alpha) constituents of the organization,” he said.
The motion to transfer the funds was passed and the Black Heritage Fashion Show will be held Saturday in the EMU Ballroom from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and is one of the many events sponsored by BSU during Black History Month.
The next item on the agenda was approval of ADFC’s budget. The $1.37 million goes toward football and basketball tickets for students. The amount is a 7 percent increase from the previous year as ADFC is working to reach its contractual agreement of paying the athletics department 50 percent fair market value.
Senate Ombudsman Mike Sherman expressed reservations with increasing ADFC’s budget in light of what he described as the “real economic dire situation” in Oregon. He said he fears incidental fees will have to be raised, or that students here during the academic year won’t benefit from a recent raise in summer students’ incidental fees.
Other senators believed it was important to keep the contract with the athletics department.
“Maybe the ADFC isn’t the place to start looking at the way we allocate fees,” Sen. Aryn Clark said.
The budget passed, 10-5, with ASUO President Ben Strawn casting one of the dissenting votes.