The ASUO Senate will vote Tuesday on whether its members should be paid for serving on the Senate over the summer.
If the Senate approves the proposal, it will allocate $1,800 to pay 11 members monthly $50 stipends over the summer. There may be larger stipends for the chair and vice chair of the Senate’s summer committee, which will be responsible for allocating a fund taken from student fees over the summer.
In the past, senators who served over the summer were not paid. During the year, senators are paid monthly stipends of at least $150.
Summer senates struggled to accomplish things in the past because of the lack of pay, Sen. Jeremy Blanchard said. Blanchard served on the Senate during the summer of 2009.
“From experience, I am almost positive that this will help a lot,” he said.
Some senators said they were swayed by Blanchard’s argument. Others, though, said they were galled at the prospect of senators voting to allocate student fee funds to their own pay.
“This money could probably go to a better use, so let’s not be selfish,” Sen. Janet Brooks.
The proposal will be considered by the newly seated 2010–11 Senate, which held its first meeting Wednesday. All but one of the new senators ran on the Reality Check slate, which promised to lower spending by the student government.
“We ran on a conservative slate, a lot of us,” Sen. Ian Fielding said. “We don’t want to introduce a huge (funding allocation) this summer.”
Others from the slate, however, voiced conditional support for the prospect of paying senators over the summer.
“If I vote for a stipend, I would like to see that some additional requirements are added (to summer senators’ duties),” Sen. Grace Hochstatter said.
There are still questions attached to the request. During the regular school year, the Senate cannot, under its rules, use money for anything that will happen after June 30, including pay. Past senates have found ways to sidestep that rule — earmarking the money to be spent later or allocating it to another entity that can then spend it when the time is right.
The senators charged with making the proposal for the spending had not decided yet how the money would be released at the Wednesday night meeting.
It is also unclear whether senators who will sit on the summer committee will vote on the proposal. Traditionally, senators have avoided such conflicts of interest, but that precedent is one of which some new senators may be unaware.
“I don’t understand why people possibly receiving stipends should abstain,” Sen. Kaitlyn Lange said. “Because I feel the need to decide what I do this summer.”
Freelancer Franklin Bains contributed to this report
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