ODE: Stealing Three Year Old Ideas
This piece in today’s ODE looks an awful lot like the story on Page 12 of OC Vol XX Issue V.
It’s comforting to know that the incidental fee allocated to the top 16 spenders has gone up substantially since 2003. By comforting I mean not at all comforting, of course.
The table below shows a few of the programs from the analysis I did in 2003 and the numbers from the article linked above. My original article contained information for the Counseling Center, which was at that time funded via incidental fee through the PFC. That, if I recall correctly, has been changed and thusly the Counseling Center is not included here. Also, USSA has been added to the ASUO Executive total in the 2006 column, because in 2003 it was one of their line-items along with the OSA.
Look at those growth rates, and note that the rate of inflation between 2003 and 2005, according to the BLS, was 6%. Only two three groups grew less than that, and most grew at many times the rate of inflation. Wonderful. Government in action, don’t you love it?
|
Group
|
2003
|
2006
|
Percent Growth
|
|
Student Recreation Center |
$ 537,428 |
$ 904,086 |
68.22% |
|
Lane Transit District |
$ 457,158 |
$ 639,700 |
39.93% |
|
Co-Op Family Center |
$ 253,303 |
$ 280,135 |
10.59% |
|
ASUO Executive* |
$ 234,497 |
$ 298,842 |
27.44% |
|
Child Care Subsidy |
$ 220,801 |
$ 233,656 |
5.82% |
|
Career Center |
$ 184,788 |
$ 317,759 |
71.96% |
|
Programs and Assesments |
$ 142,649 |
$ 188,369 |
32.05% |
|
Legal Services |
$ 137,349 |
$ 206,490 |
50.34% |
|
Recreation and Intermurals |
$ 125,727 |
$ 154,091 |
22.56% |
|
Women’s Center |
$ 125,190 |
$ 146,759 |
17.23% |
|
OSPIRG |
$ 120,819 |
$ 120,074 |
-0.62% |
|
Oregon Daily Emerald |
$ 120,000 |
$ 125,000 |
4.17% |
|
Campus Recycling |
$ 113,126 |
$ 166,091 |
46.82% |
|
Office of Student Advocacy |
$ 107,478 |
$ 145,647 |
35.51% |
|
TOTAL:
|
$ 2,880,313
|
$ 3,926,699
|
36.33% |
|
* Includes USSA |
To be quite honest, Meghann, I have no power other than that which is delegated to me. In a lot of respects, I’m at a disadvantage BECAUSE I am a member of the EMU Board.
That’s why I want other to stand up and get moving, get active, instead of just jammering their jaws. Resorting to just expressing opinions is only 1/2 of the equation.
Meghann, I thought better of you. Apparently, I thought wrong.
Fucking zing.
I don’t think you get it, man. People who complain are indeed trying to do something. Not everyone is blessed with the amazing amounts of power EMU board members have; they must resort to merely expressing their opinons.
Actually, Meghann, it gets on the nerves of those actually trying to do something.
Can you cook the food for juuuuust a little bit longer?
You know I just thought of something, Miles. By bringing this issue to our attention, is Tim not contributing to eventual change?
Sure, you can get all high and mighty about the fact that you’re on *gasp* the EMU Board and have unlimited amounts of power on campus, but if people like Tim didn’t complain, how would bean counters like you know what to do?
I mean, sure, you have your ideas, but by complaining about things that just don’t seem right, are people not bringing attention to things that otherwise might get ignored?
Just some food for thought.
(For note, I’m encouraging y’all. Why? Because I want someone to do something instead of flap their jaws or break their fingers.)
Then put up, or shut up, Timothy. Do something about it, or sit on your laurels.
Damn, what does it take to get people to DO SOMETHING around here?
“Let the Golden Age Begin-
I just realized that with Alito’s confirmation, Republicans can claim to really control all branches of government. That O’Connor wasn’t a real Republican, so now the total victory is complete. I guess I’ll just sit back and wait for my 90% tax cut, and the lifting of thousands of government regulations, and massive spending cuts… oh wait…someone here tells me that it’s not likely to happen. Hmmm. Oh I see, it’s because Anthony Kennedy is still on the court, and he’s not a real Republican either.
Oh, well, John Paul Stevens will probably drop dead any day now. He was a mere Ford appointee. Then, maybe after his replacement is installed we’ll have the Golden Age. If he doesn’t die in the next 3 years, we’ll just make sure and elect another Republican President – the stakes are very high you see – and then the Golden Age will begin. ” -lewrockwell.com
Sailor – Same logic man. It is the system that is flawed, just like the communism, not the men at the helm.
Tim- You seem to be calling for the defunding of an involuntary government body – you naughty anarchist!! Now be careful where you point those thoughts because those views don’t apply to the “real world,” just the university level.
To the extent I believe the ASUO is reformable…oh wait, I don’t.
I just think it’s a damn illustrative example of government bullshit, bullshit that’s bound to happen pretty much no matter who is elected if power is left unchecked.
The only real solution is the complete elimination of the incidental fee, or at least opt-in funding for student groups. $191 a term is real savings that students would certainly notice more than whatever scheme the ASUO comes up with, but given that most students don’t care about the ASUO (and won’t because the benefit is hard to see and nobody thinks about fees), so long as the fee exists the ASUO will remain the same.
Beutler’s piece from HATE in Vol IX lays out a plan for deconstructing the ASUO using the rules of the Clarke document and the Green Tape Notebook, and that would be worth a shot, methinks. Do you fellas thing you could get more than 1300 folks to vote in an election you organized?
The other question is whether a new SCOTUS decision would call the incidental fee compelled speech on the whole rather than try to parse things via “viewpoint neutrality”, it’s my opinion that being forced to fund all speech regardless of content is no more just than being forced to fund some speech of a certain viewpoint. Now, were UO a private university without state involvement this would be a moot point, but as UO is an agent of the state, the incidental fee clearly violates a student’s freedom of association.
yeah you haters
Then help to get a REAL exec team in. I mean, y’all need to do something besides complain.