ASUO proposed six new programs to help support students after it canceled its ticket agreement with the University of Oregon athletics department on Jan. 19, 2021. One program remains under ASUO jurisdiction and funding, three are ASUO funded, one was taken over by the state and the last hasn’t seen any progress.
For the 2020-21 fiscal year, ASUO agreed to pay $1.7 million to UO athletics for student tickets. In 2021, ASUO’s Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee decided to end the ticket agreement and reallocate those funds toward basic needs programs that it believed would be more accessible and impactful to a large portion of the student body. During the 2021-22 financial year, $913,000 of the $1.7 million funded the basic needs program, according to the 2021-22 I-Fee budget.
ASUO didn’t use the money it allocated toward the ticket agreement during the 2020-21 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, it refunded the $1.7 million to student accounts during spring term, according to an ASUO Senate Resolution that went into effect Feb. 24, 2021.
The proposed programs are menstrual product accessibility in EMU facilities, two basic needs coordinators in the Student Sustainability Center, a textbook subsidy program, emergency housing subsidy, a student advocacy coordinator and legal subsidy, and a 20% wage increase for EMU student workers.
Free or reduced cost menstrual supplies became available in the EMU starting April 21, 2021, according to Laurie Woodward, EMU director. She said those products are available in the UO Women’s Center, which is ASUO funded. Menstrual supplies are now funded by the UO after the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 3294; it requires public schools in the state of Oregon to provide free menstrual supplies on site and goes into effect July 1.
HB 3294 mandates that tampons and sanitary pads be available at no cost to students in all student bathrooms. “The university is working to expand availability further and ensure we are in full compliance with all the state requirements,” Woodward said.
The basic needs coordinators, subsidies for textbooks and emergency housing — $913,000 of the $1.7 million — are part of the basic needs program which is directly funded by ASUO and recently moved from the Student Sustainability Center to the Office of the Dean of Students.
The basic needs program has three coordinators. One was hired by UO in accordance with Oregon House Bill 2835, according to ASUO president Luda Isakharov. The other two were hired on behalf of ASUO according to the former finance director for the ASUO executive branch, Aaron Lewis.
The textbook subsidy program consists of $325,000 and got off the ground in May, operating as a “reimbursement grant” due to its late start in the term. It is available to UO undergraduates enrolled in eight credits or more and grad students enrolled in six credits or more.
The emergency housing subsidy is $150,000 of the $913,000 ASUO provides to the basic needs program. Both textbooks and the emergency housing subsidy can be accessed through the basic needs resource guide.
According to the 2021-22 I-Fee budget, the Office of Student Advocacy was discontinued in 2022. Student Advocacy is now part of the Student Government Engagement and Success office.
$55,000 was added to the SGES budget to fund the program while the Office of Student Advocacy had received over $200,000 a year in funding before being discontinued.
Student worker wages have increased in the EMU due to increases in the legal minimum wage, Woodward said.
However, student workers in the EMU did not receive the 20% wage increase that ASUO proposed. EMU info desk employee Landon Jantz said his hourly wage has stayed at $13.50, despite the info desk being funded by ASUO’s budget.
ASUO also cut the EMU from its budget ahead of the 2022-23 fiscal year, so any future wage increase will not be funded through ASUO.
