Rumble in the Board Room: Feelings Hurt
The meeting started off with an inauspicious start, as Permias Eugene (an International Student Group for Indonesian students) bumbled in with a couple surplus requests. Thankfully they got what they need for their event, Indonesia Night, but this was a clear example of the ever-continuing visibility issue with ASUO. Its own student groups don’t even know how to make special requests. In fact, I have to say that it’s impossible to know how to make special requests without sitting in on ASUO meetings.
Note to self: Increase accessibility of ASUO to students.
The Debate Team came in afterwards, with an $8,000 request to send debaters to three different tournaments. Naturally, the presentation was compelling, given the nature of the members. The discussion on the request that followed was centered mainly around the amount of fundraising that had happened, which was about 25% of the request amount.
Sen. Boye brought up a very valid point about the precedent of percentage of fundraising to amount of request. Sen. Warnecke then used the fallacious logic that since Senate had approved a $10,000 request a few weeks earlier that was sending less students than this request would, this request should also be approved. What he said afterwards was funny and true, though, that “Some weeks, ASUO is concerned with spending. It just depends on when you come in.”
But Special Requests were passed relatively quickly, because everyone knew what was on everyone’s minds: the resignation of Steven Wilsey on Monday.
Wilsey actually came in to discuss his resignation, since he didn’t want people talking behind his back like they did with Donnie Kim. The majority of his reasons for resigning revolve around the PFC recall hearing for the Veterans and Family Student Association on Monday, which I will save for ANOTHER blog post.
Ultimately it turned from a clarification of his resignation to an ass-kissing session where the Senators did a round-robin trying to convince Wilsey to stay. I do not doubt his merits, but the meeting was not the place to discuss those.
I found it very strange to be sitting in the meeting, as I was hearing my organization’s name thrown around, and at times felt a responsibility to defend the VFSA. Most of the Senators were not at any of the VFSA’s budget hearings, and while I am biased in this aspect, they do not understand the circumstances or context in which our budget request was made. Thus it was conveniently easy for them to gasp at the seemingly appalling special treatment that the VFSA received, without grasping the special circumstances.
Both PFC Chair Jacob Brennan and Steven Wilsey came in and urged Senate to vote down the budget. While I do not agree with how the budget was approved, I find it grossly unfair that we should take the fall for it in a time of such need for services like the VFSA…*end rant*
Sen. Myers, an Exec. appointment to Senate Seat 1 (Neil Brown’s old spot), was a surprise firecracker tonight. While discussing the arbitrary nature of the budgeting system, he managed to shoot at the Executive’s advocacy of spending, and the flaws of the entire system. Unafraid to make scathing remarks where they are deserving, and principled in his actions, Sen. Myers almost seems n worthy successor to Neil Brown.
The discussion about the VFSA budget and the PFC continued to spiral downwards, with Sen. Hernandez and Gulley quietly flinging crap at each other at one end of the table and Wilsey trying to speak on the other. He soon left the Board Room in a heat for the SECOND time this week. At this point, I was asking myself and the other spectators if we had mistakenly entered a circus tent instead of an ASUO meeting.
The meeting concluded when Sen. Hernandez left a little later in anger, losing quorum for the night.
We all know that ASUO reeks of unprofessionalism, but this was truly ASUO at its best. Props to Senate President Papailiou for keeping a cool head through the meeting and trying to keep the meeting in order, but he could only do so much to keep the kids from busting the little kiddie-pool.
