The ASUO will interview a potential student sustainability coordinator in the next two weeks.
 The funds were set aside by the ASUO Senate last May and were originally intended for a graduate teaching fellow, but the intended GTF went in another direction.
At the end of the year, former and current ASUO presidents Emma Kallaway and Amelie Rousseau went to the Senate to ensure the funds remained in the executive budget at the end of the fiscal year, rather than going into surplus, and transferred them into a different line item.
ASUO accountant Lynn Giordano said that the request to keep funds from rolling into surplus was not the first of its kind.
“It’s rare, but it’s happened before,” Giordano said.
There were originally more than 60 applications for the position that will work to unite student sustainability groups, but the ASUO has narrowed that number to four.
ASUO Leadership Advisor Consuela Perez-Jefferis will be on the committee that interviews the remaining four candidates. The other members of the committee include ASUO Vice President Maneesh Arora, Annie Ward of the Climate Justice League, ASUO Environmental Advocate Nathan Howard and Dan Geiger of the University’s Outdoor Program.
Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Paul Shang will be making the final hiring decision for potential candidates. He was granted that authority by University Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes.
 Shang said he seeks a candidate who holds experience working with students.
 “I’ll be, personally, (looking for) someone who has experience either in student government kinds of activities or who has had experience elsewhere in a university environment,” Shang said.
He added he hopes for the candidate he hires to understand how to work in an administrative level and knows the current national situation with regards to sustainability.
“The ideal candidate understands current thinking with regard to sustainability; not necessarily working with national (sustainability efforts), but understanding what’s happening across the nation,” Shang said.
Perez-Jefferis added that Shang will be a part of the interview process and will hold the final hiring decision after the committee makes a recommendation to him.
She also said that the four applicants selected for interviews were decided by a rating process that compares the skills and experience on each applicant’s resume with the position’s description.
For her decision, Perez-Jefferis had three priorities she considered key to the position.
“(Candidates should be) someone who knows the area of environmental justice and sustainability practices well, someone who’s dedicated to empowering students and organizing the community,” Perez-Jefferis said.
The interviews will be held over the next two weeks and the hiring will occur once the person selected for the position accepts the offer and their schedule allows them to start.
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