Wednesday’s meeting entailed a house packed with club sport athletes, eight special requests and finance committee updates as budget season continues for the ASUO Senate.
Special requests included the Young Americans for Liberty, which requested $900 to attend the International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C. in February, and transfer requests from both Mecha and the Vietnamese Student Association for events. The Black Student Union also came to request a name change for one of its line items.
Club Sports turned out in full force for a $40,000 request to send various teams to regional and national competitions. Students from all different teams crowded into the Walnut Room to demonstrate the diversity of athletics and show their support for the Executive Administration members presenting the request.
Senate asked about things like fundraising and the nature of Club Sports’ allocation of the money. The process for funding Club Sports is similar to Senate: It takes the lump sum of money and distributes it to the teams who either qualify or choose to go to national competitions and tournaments.
“I just wanted to make a quick note to Senate that this request comes in annually, cause our club sports rock and they go to nationals every year,” Senator Miles Sisk said.
He went on to say that the EMU Board, which works with Club Sports, is looking into how it can eventually provide for national competition funding in the Club Sports budget.
The request was passed by a unanimous vote.
After special requests, Senator Lasken was nominated to replace Freshman Representative Hao Tan as a student seat on the University Senate. Tan had discovered that he had a scheduling conflict that would prevent him from attending University Senate meetings. Senators then volunteered for positions on faculty/student committees within University Senate that will focus on topics like grievances, curriculum and employment.
Senator Truong then brought up the idea of the Stipend Model and changes that could be applied. The Stipend Model that applies to this year cannot be changed because the Dec. 1 deadline has passed. Senator Truong proposed making changes for the next year. S
enate eventually decided to table further discussion until spring term, when the senators-elect will be present to take part.
In officer updates, Treasurer Will Iversen announced that surplus remaining is at $246,462, which is 51.3 percent of the original budget.
Finance committees are either close to finishing or are finished with their budget hearings.
ACFC Chair Andrew Lubash talked about the debate surrounding negotiations with two of the largest contracts, Athletics and LTD. The EMU Board has only one remaining budget hearing next week. DFC is finished with its budget hearings, and PFC has several yet to go.
Just under half of surplus has been allocated by ASUO Senate
Kaylee Tornay
January 28, 2015
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