The ASUO Senate is looking into ways to make its Programs Finance Committee more efficient, based on criticism that PFC has received for how it has treated different programs during budget season.
ASUO Sen. Marissa Garcia, the law school’s representative, said that she had been present for all PFC hearings with law groups and that she’s been getting negative feedback from those groups based on how the PFC treated them.
Senators established at the Wednesday meeting that the Ethics & Efficiency Committee, a Senate internal committee, would discuss the reports groups had made.
“I’m getting the sense that as hearings progress, (PFC is) treating groups differently,” Garcia told the Senate. She explained, “the first week of hearings was going well … before the five-hour hearings.”
Early on in the process, PFC had a hearing with the ASUO Executive, which was requesting $40,000 in its 2011-12 budget to make the Sustainability Coordinator, hired
in Dec. 2010, a full-time position, rather than part-time position.
Because this would drastically increase the Executive’s budget, the committee went back and forth on that particular line item for two hours before getting to stipend increase requests or any budget sections.
Seven senators were at the meeting on Friday, as well as newly confirmed Freshman Rep. Christian Erichsen and PFC Chair Noah Wolf-Prusan.
The nine ASUO members discussed possible causes of the inefficiency in PFC, as well as its effects.
Two PFC members resigned before fall term even started: at-large elected member Rachel Koppes and Senate PFC representative Brennan Lowes.
Both PFC seats were left unfilled until James Dos Santos was confirmed to replace Lowes in November 2010 and Katherine DuPont to replace Koppes in January 2011.
Sen. Max Barkley said Wednesday he had talked to Sen. Laura Hinman about an idea to set each program’s budget by the ASUO Executive’s recommendation. If programs had problems with that budget or wanted to request more money, they could request a hearing.
Several senators did not think the groups’ concerns were merited. Sen. Evan Thomas said Wednesday he felt groups should be able to go through the process, because it only happened once each year.
ASUO Senate Chair Zachary Stark-MacMillan also said groups don’t have to receive all the money they ask for.
“We don’t have to give them all they are requesting to be nice,” Stark-Macmillan said Wednesday.
But Sen. Grace Hochstatter, Ethics & Efficiency Committee chair, recognized the issue of giving groups less money but also unnecessary inefficiencies in the system.
“(PFC) came across as a little harsh; how do you deliver bad news in a good way?” Hochstatter said. “The system is not efficient. On both sides, people aren’t happy.”
Hochstatter said the Ethics & Efficiency Committee thought the most efficient thing would be for PFC members to put some form of Hinman’s idea into their bylaws.
She said Wolf-Prusan thought it was too early to work on bylaw changes because the committee still has to recall a number of groups, but they will start early next term looking into changes to the program financing process.
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Streamlining Progams Finance Committee for efficiency remains a priority for ASUO Senate
Daily Emerald
February 5, 2011
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