ASUO senators, who are tasked with managing millions of dollars in student fees, are making plans to increase the incidental fee to generate revenue in order to make up for a budget deficit of $200,000. Meanwhile, they increase expenses by granting funds to student organizations that request them.
The final plans to address the deficit will not be concrete until late November.
This year, they are working with a deficit of $200,000, a smaller deficit compared to recent years. According to Senate Treasurer Daniel Teo, a deficit is not actually due to overspending within ASUO.
Last year, the I-Fee per student was $250.50. To make up for the deficit, the I-Fee was raised $8.75, making it $259.25 for the 2019-2020 school year.
“We get a lot of our revenue projections from the registrar’s office,” Teo said. “They tell us how many students are enrolling that year, but all of these are estimates.”
According to Teo, the projections from the registrar’s office have been short the past few years, leading to a deficit that ASUO now has to deal with. The office of the registrar were not available for comment at the time of publication.
Since ASUO has come up with a plan to further increase the I-Fee and make up for the deficit, Senator Ugo Akabike and other senators’ concerns about approving too many surplus requests have been put to rest.
“I was most concerned that we hadn’t decided how we were going to fix out deficit issue before we had allowed funds to be distributed.” Akabike said, referring to his previous stance of caution when it came to approving requests from student groups for additional ASUO funds. “I believed that some of the funds from surplus could have gone toward the deficit.”
Related Article: UO board of trustees to consider ASUO’s budget proposal as deficit persists, the Emerald’s coverage of last year’s deficit.
According to both Teo and Akabike, ASUO prioritizes getting student groups the additional funds, as they feel “punishing” student groups for a deficit that they cannot control is unfair.
A student group will usually submit their request – called a “surplus request” – to the ASUO senate. On the day that the senate votes on the request, the group will usually send representatives to plead their case. These requests are often for extra funds to put on an event or invite a guest speaker.
Senate meetings are typically held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. The sessions are open to all those wishing to attend.
