The Ongoing OSPIRG Saga
Since my last report (Veto Upheld, That Is All: ASUO Senate Recap 07 March 2011), much has changed.
The Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee met Sunday for a little over a half hour. During this hearing, the committee announced that it had cut $84,264 from the Lane Transit District contract during renegotiations on Friday. The committee decided, during the meeting, to allocate $38,000 to the athletic department and $3,600 to Sexual Assault Support Services. The remaining $42,664 went unallocated, reducing the ACFC Budget to $3,964,991.00, an increase of 6.32 percent over this year’s levels.
In a memo sent to the Executive and Senate, the committee explained “The ACFC had decided ultimately to not fund OSPIRG. The reasons for this where mixed. Some members felt it was unethical to mandate a fee for a public interest research group without implementing an-opt out fee. Other members felt the money could be better spent. The group would reconsider this allocation if various funding mechanisms were pursued further.”
The Senate attempted to meet Monday night to pass the new budget, but could not make quorum. Many believed that this, combined with the timeline desired by Robin Holmes and others in the administration, would allow ASUO President Amelie Rousseau to submit her own budget to the administration.
However, the Constitution Court ruled today that the administration’s desired deadline was not binding, and that Senate had until March 31 to submit a budget. “The Court is unpersuaded by the fact that University administration would like the budget by March 18, March 29 or any other date. University Administration has to adhere to the ASUO Constitution just like all other branches of the ASUO,” said Chief Justice Andrae Washington in the Court’s Per Curium opinion. The Court went on to explain that the two days the Senate is bound to act on the ACFC’s new recommendation within will not begin until March 25.
So now, instead of perhaps receiving the gift of a contract directly from Rousseau, OSPIRG will apparently have to go at least one more round with the Senate during the first week of Spring Term.
Question: what happens to the $42,664? Can they just leave that out of the budget and let us have our money?
Question: How the hell did they cut $80k from LTD? Seriously, what concessions did they have to make?
Question: Now that they’re meeting later, are they still going to try to pass the same budget they were going to Monday? If so, how does OSPIRG have any more say?
Also, who didn’t show up?! AHHHHHHHH.
Statement: Maybe OSPIRG should spend their time doing something worthwhile instead of spending all of their time trying to get money.
Also, I really think that ASUO should give OSPIRG a $0.01 total budget (not per student) and then laugh at Amalie because she said she only wanted OSPIRG to have “some” money.
1. Yes. No major program budget needs to spend the whole 7%. And it’s not giving it back, they’re just not taking it from us, because we’re talking about next year.
2. Satellite campuses. People who go to Coos Bay, Portland or do distance education that were counted into enrollment totals, they cut that.
3. I’m not sure what the next Senate meeting will look like, but Senate has to vote on the ACFC budget before it gets sent back to Amelie, hypothetically.
http://whenisgood.net/n3rnx8h/results/wemwqc
This link doesn’t have all of them, but quite a few indicated there that they wouldn’t make it.
*you didn’t say give it back in the first question, but the answer is yes and that’s what ACFC is proposing. Giving current service level increases to SASS (promotions, education) and athletics (full student distribution to men’s basketball games) and not allocating the remainder of what LTD agreed to cut.
I hope this time, when OSPIRG gets rebuffed for a fourth time, that Amelie Rousseau gets it through her thick short-haired skull that the students, and those that represent them, DO. NOT. WANT. OSPIRG!
ACFC is making the correct decisions here. Now it’s time to put the pressure on Kate Bidwell and Grace Hochstetter. And I suggest applying HARD pressure.
Its easier to list those who did show up, as the list is shorter. I didn’t factor that into my post because I didn’t want my recollection to fail and make an error.
At the very least, and I may be forgetting some people here, attendees included Sens. Bidwell, Hochstatter, Newman, and Stark-MacMillan, as well as Rep. Erichsen and Vice President Arora. Notables in the audience included John Walsh, Robert D’Andrea, and Ben Eckstein.