Senate passed UO Rowing’s request for new equipment but not without hours of discussion
Senate spent most of the meeting discussing the legitimacy of UO Rowing’s request of $40,000 for new equipment.
UO Rowing is the oldest and largest team in Club Sports, their speaker said. With its rapid growth and the winning streak in recent years, the group is looking for more funding to accommodate its development.
Last year, the group was granted $30,000 from the over-realized budget to purchase new equipment. Speaker at the meeting said that was only half the amount needed to catch up with 20-year-old boats.
The main concern was the limited amount of surplus, with $85,000 after senate approved all of tonight’s return requests.
Senator Abel Cerros said he’s concerned with the amount requested. He was on the over-realized budget committee last year, and he was under the impression that the grant was a one-time investment.
Senator Andrew Dunn fully opposed the request. He said that approving UO Rowing funding through surplus, senate is defeating the purpose of the over-realized budget, which is supposed to help the group become self-sufficient.
Senate asked the group to cut back in the requested amount, since it will not be able to fully spend $40,060 by the end of the fiscal year. It came back with $32,000, only focusing on safety equipment and the deposit for a new boat.
Senator Zach Lusby motioned to only fund $10,050.
Senate passed the motion with 12 “yes” and five “no” votes.  
Senate discusses future of Safe Ride and Designated Driver Shuttle’s web application.
Senate passed an amount of $16,000 for Safe Ride and DDS to develop a web application to order rides. It is promised to finish by the end of spring 2016.
Due to some technical problems, the web development will not be ready until Fall term, DDS representative said. The two groups hope to carry on its recently approved funding to prevent any delay of the process.
Senator Max Burns said he was not in favor of the request – Senate voted down several requests tonight because they don’t fit in the fiscal year.
“It would be unfair if we support this,” Burns said. “It would look like we flip flop on our votes.”
The motion to carry the budget until July did not pass. This mens, there is a possibility that the web application for Safe Ride and DDS twill not happen fall term.
Senate passed to return an amount of $25,504 from 7 groups
The groups include: Graduate Linguists of Oregon Student Society, UO Students Against Modern-Day Slavery, Child Care Subsidy, Financial Management Association, MEChA, WLF and Safe Ride.
 

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ASUO Senate wraps up the year by giving $10,050 to UO Rowing