Students who play some Club Sports or participate in the Outdoor Program will receive more money next year because of funding increases approved by the ASUO Student Senate on Wednesday.
In a narrow vote, the Senate
approved roughly $3.7 million in
student money for the EMU Board of Directors to allocate to various groups, a 3.77 percent increase from last year.
Senate President James George
provided the tie-braking vote, giving $3,572 to six club sports teams and $1,250 to the Outdoor Program, among other increases.
Ice hockey, tennis, women’s
soccer, men’s water polo and
swimming all received increases. But EMU Board Chairwoman Aryn Clark said the teams will still need to raise funds for about half of their budgets. A $5,355 increase to the Club Sports budget will pay for its director
to work year-round, instead of
taking the summer off.
The EMU administration received $1,484 for the new Student Information Center located in the EMU.
The approved budget falls below
the board’s initial projection that it would need a 9.2 percent increase to maintain services.
Accounting errors and health care cost increases altered the proposed budget several times during the funding process, eventually creating the possibility for growth.
Yet the $11,861 growth was a
debated issue for board members and senators alike. Some student leaders said growth should not be approved to keep the incidental fee low, while
others asserted more growth was necessary for students to benefit from programs and services the board oversees.
ASUO Vice President Mena
Ravassipour said the ASUO Executive supported only a 3.4 percent
current-service-level increase of about $3.69 million because growth would raise the incidental fee.
“We understand the cost of
attending the University has been harder and harder to pay for,” she said.
Board member Yoko Silk was among those who disagreed with
the amount of growth presented to
the Senate.
“I would like to see a lot more growth in our budget,” she said.
Senator Kevin Day said he was
concerned the board never formally asked the Senate about growth.
“I would have to agree with the
executive recommendation as well,” he said. “It’s a good number. It doesn’t account for any growth.”
But Clark said she didn’t know of any process to inform the Senate once the deadline had passed for the board to ask for a new benchmark. She said board members had invited senators to meetings and discussed the matter.
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