Budget hearings for incidental-fee funded groups began Thursday, but a needed revision to the current stipend model for these groups created a glitch in the ASUO Programs Finance Committee hearings.
To allow the ASUO time to draft a new model, any group that uses the current stipend model will have to wait until January to have its 2005-06 budgets approved. ASUO had to implement the changes after University President Dave Frohnmayer sent the ASUO a letter requesting a revision of the current model, citing a need for greater attention to be paid to the amount of money spent on stipends, ASUO Controller Rosie Sweetman said.
PFC budget hearings will take place several times a week until the end of February, allocating nearly $5 million in incidental funds to campus groups. Anywhere from five to 15 group budgets are approved at every meeting, depending on the amount of time each approval takes.
ASUO Controller Christina Diss said PFC members and ASUO controllers meet with group representatives prior to their budget hearing to help the group draft a properly formatted budget and answer questions.
A representative from each group presents the proposed budget to the PFC, which then hears the ASUO executive’s budget recommendation for the group. Decision are made based on the two proposals.
The PFC must approve both a group’s mission statement and its budget.
Mission statements are generally unanimously approved but budgets are often subject to
intense questioning, PFC chairwoman Persis Pohowalla said.
If every proposed budget was approved as is, “the incidental fee would skyrocket,” Pohowalla said.
The executive recommendation is based on how much money the group spent last year, how it was accounted for and how much the group raised, Sweetman said.
PFC met with representatives from the Athletic Department Finance Committee, the Arts and Administrative Student Forum, the Spencer View Tenants Council, the Pocket Playhouse and Species Equality Through Action on Thursday.
The Athletic Department Finance Committee and the Spencer View Tenants Council will have to wait until January when a new stipend model is in place before their budgets can be approved.
“We can’t start approving budgets with one stipend model and then change stipend models,” Pohowalla told ADFC representative and Student Senator Kevin Day.
University Theater’s Pocket Playhouse was the first group to present its proposed 2005-06 budget. The proposal was subjected to intense questioning from committee members as they debated the necessity of certain aspects of the budget and what precedent their decisions would set for the subsequent budget hearings.
Upon hearing that money was available in the group’s fundraising account, PFC member Mason Quiroz made a motion to decrease the budget, citing the group’s ample fundraising account as proof that it can survive with less incidental fee funds than it was requesting.
Some ASUO officials voiced concern over the precedent such a motion could set for the remaining hearings.
“The motion on the table is almost punishing them for doing a good job fundraising,” Diss said.
The motion was rejected after committee members concluded it could be taken by groups as an incentive to decrease fundraising efforts.
The group was granted a budget of approximately $3,000, an increase of about 3 percent, just shy of the requested amount.
The Arts and Administrative Student Forum saw its budget decreased by 17 percent, a result of the group spending only 66 percent of last year’s budget. AASF representatives said they were unaware that only a portion of last year’s budget had been spent and would do everything possible to ensure that doesn’t happen again this year.
Species Equality Through Action also received a budget of $893, a two and a half percent increase from last year.

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