EUGENE – Contention was the name of the game for the ASUO Senate this evening as the body worked its way through a long list of special requests. The meeting culminated in the confirmation of a new senator and a sudden adjournment.

While many of the requests were approved as they came in, the Mills International Center’s request for $2,000 to attend a conference was not well received by all. The request included a $70 per day food budget for the attendees as well as money for lodging at $259 dollars per night.

Sen. Brian Powell asked the group if they could manage a cheaper hotel, which the group said they could not. Senator Brianna Woodside-Gomez asked if they could pay for some of their own food, which drew neither an affirmative nor a negative response, prompting Woodside-Gomez to reply, “You aren’t willing to put in any money to pay for your own food, which if you were living in Eugene you would be paying for yourself?” Despite the disagreement, the request was approved at its full amount.

Chinese Students and Scholars Association’s $1,400 request for Chinese Graduate Prom Night was pared down to $150. Sen. Emma Newman was skeptical of the large request, saying, “I’m not sure it’s necessary to have this much money going to an event like this.”

The skepticism only increased when it was revealed that the group had selected the WOW Hall for the event, an $800 expense, as opposed to a cheaper room in the EMU. “In a nice, honest feed back way, you shouldn’t have booked the WOW Hall,” explained Sen. Kaitlyn Lange.

Further disagreement was encountered when KWVA presented its request for more than $13,000 in additional funds to support the appearance of RJD2 and the KWVA Birthday Bash, both now ostensibly a part of Mallard Madness. In a discussion lasting more than an hour and a half, Senators brought up the proximity of the event to the annual Street Faire, the timing of the request (Mallard Madness begins next week), the confusion as to what monies are going where in relation to Mallard Madness (and the various groups that are putting it on) and the size of the request on top of the $65,000 already spent as payment for RJD2’s appearance. After four different amounts were discussed, the request was finally approved at $6,674.

At the close of the meeting, Manny Garcia was confirmed to Senate Seat 8 (AFCF). Despite the short time that he will serve, the Senate was still rigorous in its questioning of the candidate. While Rep. Christian Erichsen was “really impressed” with Garcia, the final vote of 10-1 with two abstentions indicated that not everyone else was.

Powell then moved to adjourn and, despite widespread dissent, the motion passed by a thin margin. As such, officer and committee updates were not heard, and previous minutes were not approved.

Stats:

The meeting lasted 247 minutes, with two recesses. Net expenditures from Surplus totaled $14,113. Sens. Evan Thomas, Thomas Schally and Grace Hochstatter were not present. 8 Senators have resigned from office this year.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 28th, 2011 at 13:04 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.