The ASUO Executive has issued a letter asking the ASUO’s Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee to partially fund OSPIRG, starting “incrementally” for the next few years. The Executive did not suggest an appropriate amount of funding for OSPIRG only that they, “will be advocating for a dialogue that hopefully ends in partial funding for them this year, with incremental increases over time,” according to the Executive’s communications director Curtis Haley.

In part, the letter says, “Ultimately, a strong majority of staff members agreed that OSPIRG’s presence on campus is a benefit to student and deserves our financial support.” Understanding the politics of most of the members of the Executive, this statement isn’t very surprising. What is surprising is that the Executive made mention of fiscal responsibility concerning the issue of OSPIRG saying they were, “aware of some of the concerns that some student have voiced about OSPIRG’s funding model.” Their reasoning for OSPIRG being a financially responsible decision?

“We understand the importance of spending student dollars wisely, and believe that an incremental funding increase will allow OSPIRG to maintain its presence on campus while still demonstrating that their contributions and energy are sustainable in the long-term.”

Of course, earlier this year when the idea of funding OSPIRG was on the table, the question of fiscal responsibility was the key issue. ACFC member Alex McCafferty was quoted as saying the ASUO didn’t have enough money for OSPIRG anyways, “it’s tight and isn’t conducive to adding a budget of that magnitude.”

The question I have here, of course, is why the Executive declined to make any statement regarding a proper amount of allocation for OSPIRG. I understand, as Haley previously informed me, that the Executive is merely trying to “start a dialog” on the matter within the ACFC. In this case, that is a rather poor understanding of Executive responsibility, unfortunately.

If the Executive is indeed truly concerned about funding OSPIRG in a fiscally responsible manner, why not grow some balls and throw out a number? Especially when you consider the fact that OSPIRG is asking for $117,000–an otherwise highly unwieldly number that is impossible to add to the budget. Further, shouldn’t the Executive address the concerns of those students who are worried about OSPIRG’s funding model?

It seems with another added paragraph, the Executive could have made a suggestion to the ACFC that they be incredibly careful in making sure the items deemed unnecessary–like payment to OSPIRG’s statewide, non-student employees–be stricken from any budget proposal. Since the letter is merely a page long, it leaves much to be desired.

To the ACFC, I hope they show incredible diligence in the matter. In general, the ASUO this year has been quite careful about how it spends its money. For example, last night the Commentator had a PFC budget meeting in which we were not granted our full request, even though the ASUO still had around $80,000 to spend. A good point was raised by Sen. Whitecalf (I think it was her… my memory is a touch fuzzy) who said, “Just because we have $80,000 left doesn’t mean we have to spend it.” I agreed with her assessment, and felt that kind of mentality is the kind the ASUO needs.

Let’s hope the ACFC has the same idea. If they decide to fund OSPIRG, they damn well better set up some parameters to make sure that money is spent in a fiscally responsible manner–and most importantly–on students.

That much they owe to the students.

February 10, 2010

Members of the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee,
The ASUO Executive would like to express its firm support for allocating incremental increases in funding for the Oregon Student Public Research Interest Group (OSPIRG) over the next few years. We believe that OSPIRG has made major contributions to University of Oregon students and to the ASUO, especially through its valuable efforts to help register and educate student voters as part of the Student Vote Coalition. OSPIRG needs and deserves supportive funding in order to ensure its continued contributions to campus in the future.
We are aware of the long history of OSPIRG on the University of Oregon campus, including the withdrawal of University of Oregon student funding from the program last year. We are also aware of some of the concerns that some students have voiced about OSPIRG’s funding model and their ability to maintain the organizing energy that they have demonstrated over the past year. In light of these facts, we advocate for an incremental increase in funding for OSPIRG to take place over the next several years that will allow OSPIRG to continue to operate on campus while ensuring that their contributions continue to be significant enough to warrant student funding. We understand the importance of spending student dollars wisely, and believe that an incremental funding increase will allow OSPIRG to maintain its presence on campus while still demonstrating that their contributions and energy are sustainable in the long-term.
Our Executive staff has given this matter a lot of thought and deliberation in the last few weeks. Ultimately, a strong majority of staff members agreed that OSPIRG’s presence on campus is a benefit to student and deserves our financial support. We extend our support for funding OSPIRG not just on behalf of ourselves, but also on behalf of our Executive staff and the students and backgrounds that they represent. We respect that not every member of our staff agreed that OSPIRG should be given funding this year, but a strong majority of them did. On behalf of ourselves and the members of the ASUO Executive staff, we urge the ACFC to allocate partial funding for OSPIRG during the 2010-2011 school year.

Respectfully,

Emma Kallaway Getachew Kassa
ASUO President ASUO Vice-President

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 15:51 by D and is filed under ASUO, OSPIRG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.