Each year, the ASUO Senate is handed hundreds of thousand dollars and told to allocate it to projects aimed at improving the quality of life for students on campus.
Technically, this money comes from you – it is your student incidental fee money at work. More specifically, it is student government’s annual over-realized fund, and this year it totals nearly $750,000. That may seem like a lot of money – it represents a surplus of about $9 per student, per term. The over-realized fund is filled when actual student enrollment is more than projections, and the extra money is returned to students in the form of campus improvement projects.
More than 40 fund requests were written and delivered to the Student Senate, and the price tags are as wide-ranging as the projects themselves.
There are a number of plans that do meet the requirements, and would provide invaluable services to the University. The Moss Street Children’s Center has requested $56,722 for a mini-bus to take kids to the center from local elementary schools and has also requested $18,000 to build a playground and educate children about sustainable practices. As one-time expenses that will help a service invaluable to students and faculty who have children, both these ideas exemplify the purpose of over-realized funds and should be approved by Senate.
Other plans that should be approved include putting street lamps along Onyx Street between the Rec Center and the EMU, new windows for the EMU and funding a full-time composting coordinator on campus.
Additionally, there are several requests of varying amounts that would fund speakers or events on campus. Although some of the groups qualify for surplus funds from the Student Senate, the events have the potential to reach a large number of students and represent a good use of the funds.
Conversely, several groups requested funds to send students to conferences. Because these requests benefit only a small number of students and have no wider impact on campus, these should not be approved.
One plan that has garnered significant attention is ASUO President-elect Sam Dotters-Katz’s $54,000 proposal to open the Knight Library 24 hours a day five days per week throughout next year. This is an unnecessary move, one that wouldn’t greatly improve students’ quality of life but instead would be a waste of resources. The demand to study in the library at 3 a.m., on a Thursday night is not great. Moving up the opening of the Student Recreation Center to 10 a.m. on Sunday would benefit more students.
There are other proposals that would not be worth the money requested. For instance, in addition to worthwhile proposals to digitize its collection and records and to upgrade its transmitter, campus radio station KWVA wants $4,000 to create a virtual station in Second Life.
The $112,510 request to renovate a house on Moss Street into a “Sustainable Living House” might be a viable option. It is a novel idea and satisfies the criteria for receiving over-realized funds, but Senators should consider that its hefty price tag might not be worth displacing several other proposals. Nevertheless, the funds should be spent, and Senators should use them in a way that will most improve campus resources.
Full descriptions of each proposal can be found on the ASUO Web site at asuo.uoregon.edu.
The Emerald’s business department has requested $7,066 in over-realized funds to purchase bicycles and trailers for paper delivery. That proposal does not involve news staff, and we will not discuss its pros or conss not involve news staff, and we will not discuss its pros or cons.
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