News:

EUGENE – The ASUO Senate dealt mainly with a flurry of sizable special requests at its meeting Wednesday night in the EMU Walnut room. By the close of business, $5,400 had been distributed to the Arab Student Union, the Oregon Daily Emerald, and Permias, along with a line item transfer for Swing Club and the filling of vacancies on various committees.

After unanimously approving the transfer of all funds into “campus events” for Swing Club, the Senate heard the request from Permias, an Indonesian student group, for $800 from Surplus and a $60 line item transfer to make up a budget shortfall. Both were approved without any opposition, with Sen. James Dos Santos abstaining from the vote on the request from surplus.

There was some contention as to how much money to allocate to the Arab Student Union, which requested $3,000 for event funding. A reduced amount of $2,500 was proposed by Sen. Emma Newman, but this was rejected by a vote of two to 14. Eventually the Senate unanimously settled on $2,000.

Last on the special request agenda, the Oregon Daily Emerald requested $3,000 to upgrade their delivery bicycle fleet. Though the Emerald has a custom built tricycle at its disposal, the three bicycles and trailers which supplement this vehicle were described as “insufficient” to the task of distribution by Kathy Carbone, the Emerald’s business manager, in the request submitted to the Senate. The Senate unanimously approved $2,600 for three new custom built bicycles and cargo boxes.

After a brief explanation of the various committees, the Senate doled out appointments to new and veteran members alike. By the time the dust settled, Sens. Blake Sedgley and Lamar Wise had been appointed to the Over Realized Committee, Wise and Sen. Kerry Snodgrass joined the Ethics and Efficiency Committee, Snodgrass was detailed to the Finance Committee, Rep. Christian Erichsen joined the Outreach Committee, and Sen. Kristina Harding became the Senate’s representative on the Programs Recognition and Review Committee. Following a brief discussion on the Programs Finance Committee process, the Senate then adjourned for the night.

Senate Stats and Opinion after the jump.

Stats:

Meeting Duration: 94 minutes (no recesses)

Money Allocated from Surplus: $5,400

Not Present: Hinman, Woodside-Gomez

Resignation Count: 7 [Most Recent: Sen. Chris Bocchicchio (Seat 13: Business)]

Opinion:

After the excitement of OSPIRG’s hearing with the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee, this was pretty boring. The only thing that even came close to being exciting was the brief discussion of PRC restructuring, which was dropped in near the end by Sen. Kaitlyn Lange. But not even that could get the party hoppin’ because everyone knew that nothing was going to happen on that front tonight. Oh, well. A jaded political reporter looking for some excitement can’t win ‘em all, I suppose.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 at 00:17 by Rockne Andrew Roll and is filed under ASUO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.