The ASUO Senate approved the reallocation of almost $20,000 Wednesday that was originally set aside to pay a graduate teaching fellow, disregarding the objections of several of the Senate’s members.
Those senators accused ASUO President Emma Kallaway, president-elect Amelie Rousseau and finance coordinator Grace Bounds, the presenters for the reallocation, of doing so in a way that came close to breaking the ASUO’s rules and would establish an undesirable precedent.
The discussion, the last substantive one of the 2009–10 ASUO Senate, whose term ends Tuesday, lasted for more than two hours. Kallaway insisted the most important part of her plan was the proposed creation of the sustainability coordinator position, but Sens. Nick Gower and Hailey Sheldon, among other senators, said the allocation was improper because the coordinator would begin working in the summer, while funds set aside in 2009–10 budgets can only be used in 2009–10. Kallaway and Rousseau devised a way around that rule that did not violate the rules, but Gower said it still violated the “spirit” of the rule.
Although that was the most contentious aspect of the request, Rousseau also asked for funding for a number of other projects — a proposed map of campus to be placed near the EMU, a new television screen to act as a reader board, and funding to pay for painting a new logo on the ASUO office.
Most aspects of the request were quickly bogged down by logistical problems, including Sen. Jairo Castaneda’s concern that the map, to be imprinted on the ground, would be thus inaccessible to people using wheelchairs.
The sustainability coordinator position, which would attempt to unite campus environmental groups’ efforts, was still the greatest source of contention.
“At some point, you just need to be married to the budget system,” Sen. Hailey Sheldon said.
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