The ASUO Senate voted Wednesday night to keep the Knight Library open 24 hours in the 2009-10 school year using $27,000 from its surplus fund.
Under the plan put forth by ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz, the library will begin 24-hour service on school nights the third week of each academic term next year and continue it through finals week. This year’s 24-hour service included the first two weeks of the term, too, but Dotters-Katz said the service will shorten because data collected this year suggest fewer students use the library in those weeks.
Dotters-Katz made additional cuts to the service’s cost by reducing the number of security guards assigned to the building from three to two. This year’s 24-hour service cost $54,000, allocated from the ASUO’s over-realized fund, which is reserved for one-time expenses.
Dotters-Katz said the service was critical to keeping the ASUO relevant to students.
“This is a service more than any other … that I can hold in my hand and say ‘The ASUO gave this to me,’” Dotters-Katz told the Senate.
All 15 of the senators present voted to approve Dotters-Katz’s proposal, in what Senate President Alex McCafferty said was the 2008-09 Senate’s first unanimous vote. President-elect Emma Kallaway, who supported the plan during her campaign, did not attend the meeting.
Hilts takes seat early
The Senate also appointed a new senator at Wednesday’s meeting. Amanda Hilts took Senate Seat 20, representing education majors and students in the Community Education Program.
Hilts won the seat in April’s primary election and was scheduled to take office in three weeks alongside the other candidates who won positions in the election. Senators said she was appointed early because she had demonstrated an unprecedented interest in the job.
“I think she’s great,” Sen. Arielle Reid said. “She’s been hanging out in the ASUO office, so I’m excited to appoint her.”
The seat has been empty since it was created in a 2008 special election, except for three weeks this year in which it was filled by appointee Ryan Castro, who left citing time conflicts. Hilts said the low numbers owed to apathy in the school of education. Only 55 of the more than 4,000 students who voted in the primary election cast votes in Hilts’ race for the seat.
“Nobody (in the School of Education) really knows about the education seat,” Hilts said. “I want to change that.”
Senate funds ad group
The Senate gave $9,400 to Allen Hall Advertising, a student-directed advertising firm, to fund a trip to an advertising conference in New York City for 32 students.
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group will attend the One Club Education Festival, a
convention for advertising and business students that club representatives called a vital networking opportunity.
The club came to the meeting asking for $10,000 to cover the costs of airfare and entrance fees. The group has traditionally received funding from the School of Journalism and Communication, but members said budget cuts in the school had forced it to pull funding. The Senate also provided $10,000 to the group last year, members said.
Senators were at first apprehensive about the size of the request and the number of students attending, as well as the timing of the request. “I think expecting the SOJC to fund this was pretty foolish,” said Sen. Deborah Bloom, who represents journalism students.
However, after impassioned appeals from the 19 group members present, in which one student came to the brink of tears, senators changed their minds and voted to approve the request.
“I’m actually a big fan of this,” Sen. Demic Tipitino said. “And trust me, if you guys haven’t been going to a lot of Senate meetings: I don’t usually like giving out this much money.”
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ASUO to continue funding 24-hour library
Daily Emerald
May 2, 2009
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