In its longest and most confusing meeting of the year, the ASUO Student Senate passed a budget for the EMU, giving it a 6.4 percent increase over this year’s funding — but it was still $11,433 less than what the EMU wanted.
The senate budgeted the EMU $2,866,416 for next year, but math questions spurred a lot of confusion and argument. There were two numbers that the 6.4 percent increase approved for the EMU earlier this year could have been based on, and the question was which one it was.
The EMU received $2,694,000 from the senate last year but later realized the amount was not enough to maintain its current service level. It returned to the senate last fall and asked for $10,745 from surplus.
Budget increases for one year are generally calculated off of what a group received the past year.
Several senators said the original $2,694,000 was the appropriate number to work from because that was included in last year’s budget packet.
The EMU believed that because the special request in the fall was for maintaining current service level, that it should be added onto the EMU’s original budget for the 2000-2001 school year — essentially allowing for a larger increase of 6.82 percent.
Some questions were posed regarding the fiscal responsibility of the EMU, with the senators divided over such responsibility. But those questions were only a small part of the larger debate over whether the EMU should receive a 6.82 percent increase, or whether it should stay at its 6.4 percent benchmark as recommended by the ASUO Executive.
The $11,000 cut will come out of areas in the EMU budget that were set aside for “growth” projects, said Christa Shively, who presented the EMU’s budget.
Sen. Jennifer Greenough said that if the EMU was going to be allowed to show its special requests in its original budgets, the other major committees — the PFC and the Athletic Department Finance Committee — should be able to do the same.
“If others didn’t do it, they’re cutting themselves short for the future,” EMU Director Dusty Miller said, adding that it was a “cut that is going to grow geometrically over the year.”
Before debate about the increase even began, another substantial alteration was made to the EMU’s budget. The senate decided to begin funding the Cultural Forum and the Student Activities Resource Organization out of the ASUO Programs Finance Committee, removing them from the EMU’s budget beginning in the 2002-2003 school year.
The EMU uses surplus money from some of its programs to fill deficits in others. Sen. Andy Elliott said he believed that student incidental fee surplus should go back into the general surplus — as it does for the ASUO Programs Finance Committee — and not go into those other areas.
The Green Tape Notebook, which contains the rules governing the ASUO, was not clear as to whether the senate has jurisdiction to move a major program from one committee to another.
Watts said if the groups were not moved this year, then the senate would have to wait until next year to act. If they were moved, however, the worst that could happen was a veto of the EMU budget by University President Dave Frohnmayer or ASUO President Jay Breslow.
The sentiment expressed by many senators was that the senate may as well try.
“I really don’t think this is an open and shut issue and I definitely think this is something we need to resolve,” Watts said. “We should hash out the legalities at a later date.”
But many senators and EMU board members argued that a decision changing the structure of a major program so substantially should not be done without sufficient review.
“This is exactly the kind of hasty action for a program that we don’t want to make,” Gabbe said. “This has nothing to do with the budget at hand tonight … [and it is] an attempt by people to slide this under the door at the very last minute.”
Student Senate approves increase for EMU, but cuts ‘growth’ projects
Daily Emerald
February 14, 2001
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