EUGENE – The tension in the room was noticeable and focused Wednesday night. Even a group dinner at Sen. Kaitlyn Lange’s house prior to the meeting couldn’t erase the unease the 21 members of the ASUO Student Senate displayed throughout the evening, though one can only imagine what it would have looked like without the informal gathering prior to.

The rest of the agenda passed in a blur, until just past 10 P. M. After the meeting had returned to order, four students stepped into the open space at the end of the U-shaped table in the EMU Walnut room and almost five months of deliberation, debate and anxious anticipation came to a crescendo as the Senate took up OSPIRG’s appeal of the contract decision handed down by the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee.

The presentation from OSPIRG and the public comment period that followed were only a prelude to the Senate discussion that would follow, but it still OSPIRG’s first presentation to the Senate this year, and they used it for all it was worth. OSPIRG State Board Chair Charles Denson told the senators that OSPIRG was important to students because, “Rather than just doing things on campus, they’re able to take up a bigger perspective.” Denson went on to say that “Students want to be at the forefront of solving problems.”

With the conclusion of public discussion, the Senate speaker’s list was opened and almost every senator quickly stuck their hands out across the table to be added to it. Sen. Lamar Wise started out the evening’s discussion by saying that he thought that OSPIRG would be a good compliment to the campaigns the ASUO runs on various issues and moved to add a $45,000 contract to the ACFC’s Budget.

Sen. Evan Thomas was the first to speak against the contract. “I like your mission statement,” he said, but continued, “I don’t think this is where you should be getting your funding.”

Potential legal ramifications of funding OSPIRG were also discussed by Thomas, who said, “For senators that aren’t aware, this has been an issue across the country since 1983. There have been dozens of lawsuits.” Thomas expressed his belief that, without significant infrastructure changes, funding OSPIRG would result in a lawsuit directed against the University.

Sen. Kerry Snodgrass disagreed with this rationale, saying, “Please consider that as ASUO senators we are not responsible for making legal decisions for the University of Oregon.”

Others were more philosophical in their disagreements with OSPIRG. “I see no hindering of this state, campus, or nation by not funding OSPIRG,” said Sen. Max Barkley.

For many senators, it simply came down to a matter of dollars. Without an OSPIRG contract, the ACFC’s budget was set to grow by seven percent next year, the legal maximum for a major program budget. Other methods of channeling money to the ACFC were considered, as was drawing money from the athletic department. But a number of senators were not comfortable with these options. “We can’t joke about the fact that this money will be taken away from athletics,” said Lange. “We still don’t have the funds for this.”

Sen. Kristina Harding summarized these sentiments very succinctly, saying, “it just seems like that money isn’t there.”

The discussion got heated at times, prompting Sen. Zachary Stark-MacMillan to remind the body to, “Remember that we’re all students. Please be respectful.”

The arguments flew back and forth for almost two and a half hours. Eventually, Wise declared, “I don’t think we’re going to get much of anywhere.” Despite this, it still took three attempts to call the question and the number of names on the speakers list never dropped below double digits.

But it was bound to happen eventually, and it finally did a little after midnight. As Stark-MacMillan read off the roll, just as happens multiple times a week every year, the whole room held its breath as the results of the vote that everyone had waited for finally came in. Five ayes, 14 nays.

Some of the votes were unexpected. When asked about his nay vote, Sen. James Dos Santos told the Commentator that, to him, “The money really doesn’t exist. It’s like a hypothetical figure.”

Sen. Grace Hochstatter, who voted nay, told the Commentator, “I’m in support of OSPIRG and everything they do.” She continued to say that she felt the organization needed to be structured differently. “I think that this will be a catalyst, a conduit for that reconsideration, and hopefully good will come of this.”

Like a wave crashing on the beach and then quickly rolling in, the meeting accelerated towards its conclusion. ACFC’s final budget was quickly passed with minimal opposition, and the procedural matters of committee and officer updates were but a soft, delicate coda to a symphony of a meeting.

But the symphony is not yet over. When asked by the Commentator if she still intended to veto the ACFC budget, ASUO President Amelie Rousseau paused before flatly saying, “yes.” She continued to explain that, “The Executive is the only entity that’s providing a proactive option to have the most amount of students be happy with the ACFC budget.”

Stats, Notes, and Opinion after the jump.

Stats:

Votes on OSPIRG Appeal:

Aye: Snodgrass, Newman, Wise, Bacon, Stark-MacMillan

Nay: Dos Santos, Hinman, Brooks, Lange, Woodside-Gomez, Fielding, Sedgley, Barkley, Bidwell, Thomas, Powell, Schally, Hochstatter, Harding

Meeting Duration: 368 Minutes (Three Recesses)

Money Allocated From Surplus: $8,432

Not Present: Garcia

Resignation Count: 7

Notes:

ACFC’s budget was passed at $4,007,665, an increase of seven percent.

The EMU Board’s Major Program Budget was approved at $5,091,532, an increase of 6.55 percent. This figure reflects an additional $20,000 added by the Senate to the “contingency” line item in the Club Sports budget, to help pay for cost associated with travel to national tournaments.

$7,929.14 from the Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit was set aside to apply for another such credit, while $5,078 was given to ACFC to defer the cost of the contract with Lane Transit District. This is a revision of last week’s decision to channel $13,000 of OBETC funds to the LTD contract.

The Latino American Law Student Association, the Hong Kong Student Association, and the American Marketing Association all had special requests approved. The AMA request was held over from last week. The African Student Association’s request for $3,016 was denied.

Opinion:

I’m pretty sure everyone knows how I, and this publication, feel about OSPIRG. With 14 votes against, all of them sounding pretty determined from the tone of their reasoning, (whether expressed to the Senate or to me), even if Rousseau makes good on her veto threat, (which I have every confidence that she will) the Senate can override and pass a budget. More than anything else, I’m kind of glad this whole story is winding to a close.

I’ve been a student government reporter for about five months now, and this story has galvanized student government the entire time I’ve been on this beat. I’m really looking forward to covering elections, and I deeply hope that this whole mess isn’t still going on during the elections. (though with a PRIG ballot measure coming around – again – I’m sure we’re not through with Denson & Co. quite yet) I wish Senate would get serious about stipend reform, I wish we could pay closer attention to issues like LTD and the athletic department and the future of the post office (not to mention the $20,000 bone that got tossed to Club Sports last night, which deserved more discussion), but they get swept under the rug thanks to the $117,000 elephant in the middle of the room. So fund them or don’t fund them, but if this doesn’t end soon I’m going to have to start thinking about cutting a book deal so I can at least make some money off this mess.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 14:09 by Rockne Andrew Roll 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.