Seven people make up the ASUO Programs Finance Committee — seven distinct personalities that ultimately determine how more than $2 million is divided among more than the 100 student programs on campus.
Here, the Emerald explores the members of the PFC: their backgrounds, their involvement and how all this comes into play in budgeting decisions.
 
PFC Chairwoman Sen. Mary Elizabeth Madden began her student-government resume in high school and continued it last year as an intern for the ASUO Executive. The 20-year-old junior’s experience outside student government ranges from her enrollment in the Clark Honors College to the positions she occupies on several student scholar and University boards.
Madden, who said she ran for the PFC senate position because she felt it was a good combination of her political science and business majors, said the strongest asset of the PFC this year is its balanced and diverse nature.
But as all but one member is new, Madden said the seven-member committee has had to educate itself while also trying to educate programs about the budget process.
“We had a pretty steep learning curve, and all of us kind of had to find our way,” Madden said.
 
Two-year at-large member Aaron Weck — the only returning member to the PFC — was appointed earlier this year after resigning from his position late last year. Weck, who said he attends probably 25 percent of all the events put on by student groups on campus, said he re-joined the PFC because “it’s probably the most critical position on campus — period.”
Weck, a 28-year-old junior from Eugene who is planning to major in biochemistry, has spent a lot of time volunteering for the ASUO, from interning his freshman year to setting up the Web pages for the Student Senate and the PFC. He sat on the PFC last year, but resigned because of grades and budget disputes.
“In the beginning it seemed easy, but then it got really very difficult for everyone,” Weck said. But this year, “I knew what to expect and how to plan for excessively long budget meetings.”
Weck said he encourages groups to come up with and implement new and refreshing ideas. He also said he is in favor of funding anything that is legal — that is, anything that falls within the guidelines set by the University and the state.
 
Sen. Jackie Lynn Ray, 19, is a sophomore public relations major and political science minor from Hermiston who joined the PFC because she was interested in where the incidental fee money was going.
“College is the last time that you’re going to have this many opportunities to become involved and to see how many different mindsets there are,” she said.
Expressing strong ties to the Greek community, Ray is also a Freshman Interest Group leader and a student administrator for the child care subsidy. Like some of the other PFC members, Ray said one of the biggest problems she’s seen is that many programs are starting new each fall, and don’t have enough time to adjust before the budget process begins.
 
PFC Vice Chair and programs representative Randy Newnham said that communication and contact with the student programs has been the rockiest part of his PFC experience so far, and he said most of it is due to the high turnover inherent in the groups.
Newnham, a 25-year-old senior anthropology and linguistics major who grew up in Kentucky, is a co-coordinator for the Survival Center. He joined the PFC to speak for student programs, which are vital, he said, because they add a whole new level of discourse to the University.
“Too often student government is run by resume-padders and other wonks,” Newnham said. “I signed up because [it is] so important that someone who has the programs’ best interests in mind should be on the PFC.”
 
Sen. Marie Brink ran for the PFC because she wanted to understand what the programs on campus are about, but, she said, she had no idea what she was getting into. The 20-year-old sophomore pre-education major from Seattle, who participates in various club sports and loves the outdoors, said the PFC members have worked very well together.
But she still has some complaints.
“I definitely think the meetings are running too long,” she said.
Brink added that it is also frustrating not having an authority present during the budget hearings to make sure the committee is distributing the right amounts of money.
 
The most recent addition to the PFC, Arlie Adkins, 20, is a junior history major from Salem who just returned from an internship at the state department in Washington, D.C.
Adkins’ experience has included involvement in everything from the Honors College Student Association to the College Democrats, and last year he worked as both an executive projects coordinator and state affairs coordinator for the ASUO Executive.
Everyone on the PFC contributes, Adkins said, and there has been some good discussion. But he has one major issue with the process: The new stipend model being implemented this year.
Stipends are being standardized for all programs during this year’s budget process, which means that the money some groups give to their stipend positions is increasing while others are decreasing — and the groups don’t have a choice in the matter.
“I just don’t think it’s very financially responsible,” Adkins said. “If you have a group that wants to have more of a volunteer position as their director, then they shouldn’t be forced to pay more money.”
 
Executive appointee Lawrence Gillespie, a 26-year-old junior psychology major from Pasadena, Calif., came to the University after attending Lane Community College. In fact, it was his successful appeal to get LCC incidental fee funding for the Black Student Union — one of two groups at LCC that now receive fee money — that sparked Gillespie’s interest about how the budget process works at the University.
But as of last week, Gillespie has found some problems with what he has seen.
Explaining that he sees the programs finance system as flawed and unfair, Gillespie said there needs to be a way to ensure that personal biases don’t interfere in the judgment of budgets.
“It’s like, seven students who ultimately have the deciding fate over a group’s budget,” he said. “So much power is in our hands that it’s just incredible.”