The ASUO Senate is not required to meet during dead week but will do so anyway tonight to help groups balance their budgets.
“Every term this year, we have had to have extra special Senate meetings because groups couldn’t get their requests in on time,” Senate President Alex McCafferty said.
The Senate will vote on requests from 10 groups, many of which have insufficient funding for programs they hope to sponsor. For instance, MEChA, a Chicano student union, has a $448.16 deficit in a particular line item and seeks to transfer funds from another budget line.
If the groups do not address the shortfalls this year, McCafferty said, the ASUO will likely reduce their budgets in the coming year. Therefore, the groups hope to transfer funds from other parts of their budgets to cover expenses.
The ASUO has also received three direct requests for funding from its discretionary account – $500 to publish the UO Women’s Center publication, Siren, $2,250 for a conference sponsored by the Survival Center and $1,032 to buy a computer for the Mills International Center.
The Senate will also hear less common requests from the International Student Association seeking to return funding to the ASUO. The ISA has gotten $2,030.76 that it hasn’t used because its directors found ways to reduce costs for its Halloween Dance Party, International Night and orientation, including securing funding from former ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz.
The meeting will end with the Senate deciding on its summer committee leadership. Senators are not required to attend meetings during the summer, but the body has a $5,000 budget. Eight senators expressed an interest in serving on the committee, which does not have the power to pass resolutions.
Because Wednesday’s meeting is not a regularly scheduled meeting, senators will not be penalized if they are absent. Fourteen of the 20 must show up for the meeting to go ahead and, at the May 27 Senate meeting, 14 senators said they would attend.
McCafferty said the interest in attending is fortunate for groups who need money to preserve their budgets.
“It’s lucky for them because (if) we were one senator away from not having quorum,” he said. “Then we wouldn’t be able to address their budgets.”
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