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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2000)
PFC budget hearings leave executive dissatisfied ■ ASUO President Wylie Chen is disappointed that an executive coordinator position will not be funded By Simone Ripke Oregon Daily Emerald After weeks of Programs Fi nance Committee hearings and high-flying emotions, the ASUO Executive is frustrated with the outcome of its budget hearings. The ASUO Executive received a 2.01-percent increase, which mostly covered mandated in creases and did not allow for reestablishing the position of an executive coordinator. ASUO President Wylie Chen said he and Vice President Mitra Anoushiravani had hoped to reestablish the position, which had helped 13 previous ASUO executives conquer administra tive and bureaucratic red tape. Chen said this past year, he and Anoushiravani have spent too much time on the kind of bu reaucratic work that was previ ously done by the executive coor dinator. “We were not elected to be ad ministrators and bureaucrats,” Chen said. “We are elected to ad vocate for students.” Chen said the position of the executive coordinator is crucial to retain and increase the ac countability of the ASUO, and in his four years in the ASUO he has seen the improvement the position makes not only for the executive, but for the entire ASUO. “I have seen this position make IpfjllllGt stand that this m Committee position would the ASUO, but all ASUO programs. “This position isn’t about the executive,” Chen said. “If the ex ecutive isn’t good, then it’s going to affect every other program.” But Chen said he understands that PFC members and student senators, who have never been president or vice president, went by their own experience with student government and ruled that the position was not needed. “They can’t fully understand the magnitude of what a position like this could do,” Chen said. “They have no idea what comes across our desks.” He said that although he and Anoushiravani would not have personally benefited from the po sition during the rest of their term, he had hoped to make the huge differ ences,” Chen said. He said PFC members and student senators failed to under not only benefit ASUO better for the next execu tive. Anoushiravani said the posi tion would have enabled the ASUO Executive to get research and information from someone who was paid by them, rather than other departments of the University. “I think [the PFC and senate] are making a mistake,” she said. She said she feels that not all PFC and senate members made an effort to read the ASUO Exec utive’s budget proposal and ap peal or ask questions that might have helped clarify issues. Anoushiravani said she was frus trated with the PFC’s inconsis tency in giving reasons for deny ing the position. She also said she feels the outcome of the budget hearing would have been different had it taken place earli er in the process. Project Saferide had proposed an 8-percent budget increase for the next fiscal year and received a 5.6-percent increase, leaving coordinators looking for fund raising opportunities. Sarah Cohn, a senior political science major and co-director for Project Saferide, which is run through the ASUO Women’s Center, said the program received increases for payroll and van maintenance which were the most crucial, but was cut in oth er line items it had hoped to in crease. “We got cut in some places where we did not necessarily want to get cut,” Cohn said. Those areas include expenses for printing and duplication, the program’s main tool to spread the word. However, Cohn said she felt the hearing was fair and is confi dent Project Saferide will be able to make up for the difference through extra fund-raising activities. The Student Senate is another group which did not receive the increase it had requested. The Student Senate’s budget for the next fiscal year was decreased by 2.95 percent. Student Sen. Jennifer Gree nough said the senate had hoped to increase its budget, mainly to increase the stipends senators re ceive. Although the PFC did not approve of increasing the stipends, Greenough said she does not expect the PFC’s deci sion to have much impact on next year’s senate. “I really don’t think the people who are on senate do it for the money,” she said. But Sen. Spencer Hamlin is less optimistic. “I think it screws over low-in come students and their opportuni ty to serve on senate,” Hamlin said. Senators currently receive $70 a month, and Hamlin said he More money The folfowinggroups received large budget increases: The Multicultural Center, with a 124-percent increase, from $31,405 to $70,349 OUTLAWS, with a 37.5-percent in crease, from $1,816 to $2,498 Programs and Assessments, with a 30.487-percent increase, from $53,594 to $69,933 Westmoreland Tenants’ Council, with a 48.786-percent increase, from $1,236to $1,839 SOURCE: Programs Finance Committee thinks a modest increase to $100 would have helped enable low income students to run for sen ate. He also said the PFC’s deci sion not to increase the stipends made him wonder how valuable PFC members consider the Stu dent Senate. In addition, Hamlin said it has been difficult retaining senate members in the past few months. “We have had a major problem keeping a full senate,” he said. Keeping the stipend at the cur rent level will make keeping next year’s senate complete a chal lenge, Hamlin said. Committee bases its decisions on three top priorities ■ Some groups, including the ASUO Executive, believe there were discrepancies, but the PFC takes defense By Eric Pfeiffer Oregon Daily Emerald Increased fiscal responsibility or an attack on student’s cultural prosperity? This is the primary debate surrounding a sweeping wave of change brought forth by this year’s Programs Finance Committee. Groups such as the Interna tional Students Association have seen significant cuts to their budgets, and, specifically in this case, the ISA was denied its re quest for a program coordinator position. “I don’t understand how they can expect high-quality programs when our budget is being drasti cally cut, and they are not willing to compensate our efforts,” Ying Che Chen, office manager for the ISA, said. ASUO President Wylie Chen believes the budget cuts are going to result in negative con sequences for a large number of programs and University stu dents. “These cuts are going to have huge effects on student pro grams,” Chen said. But members of the PFC con tinue to defend their position. “We base our decisions on three priorities: How a group spent its budget the year before, what requests they are making and the benchmark,” PFC mem ber Emily Sedgwick said. Although the PFC uses this set of priorities in to judge the validi ty and necessity of a group’s re quest, members of the ISA do not feel their group’s needs were tak en into full consideration. “They are only looking at the numbers, not the issues behind them,” Ying-Che Chen said. Members of the PFC are also frustrated because they believe programs don’t understand the limitations in the process of mak ing budget changes. “We gave [the ISA] the Interna tional media resource coordina tor position, but we can’t always fulfill every group’s requests” said PFC member Helen Stock lin-Enright. Also, Sedgwick pointed out that the PFC did approve several increases for groups, including the ISA, that went behind their own O-percent benchmark. “We gave them a 6-percent increase, while most groups had their budgets cut,” Sedgwick said. Sedgwick argues that the benchmark is only one of several factors that the PFC considers throughout the budgeting process. “The benchmark is al ways in the back of our minds; we use it as a guidance,” she said. Aside from the budget cuts themselves, members of the ISA have other problems with how the PFC has run this year’s budg et hearings. “The process felt very awk ward. We still don’t understand why we were denied,” Alberto DeAlbuquerque, co-director of the ISA said. He said he also feels that too much attention is given to paper work, instead of individual re O-percent benchmark In an attempt to meet its proposed 0*percent increase, the PFC: Gave budget increases to 37 groups Gave budget decreases to 57 groups Funded six new student groups, in cluding: the Arts Administration Student Forum, theChessClub, the Oregon Future lawyers Associ ation, the Pre-Dental Club, the Pre Veterinary Club, the Student par ents Association Source: Pro grams Finance Committee quests. “I think they rely too much on first impressions. We gave them the budget numbers they wanted, but they need to Turn to Budgets, page 7 PFC continued from page 1 DDS has been running seven nights a week, using two vans on busy nights. With the cut, howev er, Wise said the service will not be able to run Sunday through Tuesday and there will only be one van running on Wednesdays and Thursdays and two on Fri days and Saturdays. Wise said DDS will have to let employees go. He said PFC mem bers said some of the positions, such as navigators, are not neces sary and others are overpaid. Rice said the PFC thought DDS provides a similar service to Saferide, which is mostly operat ed by volunteers. And although the PFC understands that there is a difference between the patrons both services deal with, there should be an alternative to DDS’s current payroll expenses, such as stipends or paying drivers per shift, Rice said. Wise pointed out that the posi tion of the navigators is crucial to listen to the radio, navigate the way, go and get the patrons from their party and control drunk pas sengers who distract the driver. Incidents where passengers have tried to spray DDS drivers with the fire extinguisher in the vans have proved that navigators are essential to protect the drivers and the safety of the ride, Wise said. “I could not in good con science send a single person to get a carload of belligerent drunks,” he said. “We had to really argue to save that position.” However, cuts in the amount and quality of service will be in evitable, Wise said. Wise said employees deserve adequate compensation because of the hours they work and the people they deal with. The Student Bar Association’s budget was also decreased by 30 percent. Paul Wagner, a third-year law student and president of the Student Bar Association said he feels that PFC members did not even listen to the presentation about the group. “The whole thing has just been a complete sham,” Wagner said. He said the Student Bar Associ ation requested a» 2-percent in crease to cover increases in office supplies. Now, with a 30-percent decrease, the group will have to find other ways to cover basic ex penses, Wagner said. “We are going to have to cut back quite a bit,” Wagner said. He said he feels that being heard by the PFC so late in the process — especially after the 121-percent increase the MCC re ceived — left little choice for the PFC to do anything but make ma jor cuts. “Everyone after [the MCC] suf fered,” he said. He said he thinks the outcome of the hearing would have been different had they presented their budget at the beginning of the hearing process. “It just seems like [the PFC is] locked now, because they com mitted to a 0-percent benchmark,” he said. The O-percent benchmark, ap proved by the Student Senate last term, was the PFC’s goal to have no increase from last year to this year’s budgets. “We as a committee knew what our benchmark was,” Rice said. Nevertheless, the PFC granted an overall increase of 5 percent for unavoidable, mandated increases. Emily Sedgwick, vice chair woman of the PFC, said the com mittee analyzed all groups’ budg ets on the same criteria and made an effort to be as impartial as hu mans can possibly be. “I would say that we are not computers. We don’t spit out numbers with complete impar tiality, but we do try,” she said. Land Air Water, which received the 2-percent budget increase it requested, has shared costs for speakers and conferences in the past with the SBA. Beth Dahl, a third-year law student and the treasurer for LAW, said that de spite getting its budget increase, her group will still be affected by the SBA’s budget cut. “That will probably hurt us next year,” Dahl said. Although the Coalition for En vironmental Racism did not get a budget cut, it had asked for a 9.8 percent increase and received a ID percent increase. Matthew Peck ham, a junior double-majoring in environmental and international studies and a co-director for CAER, said the group would have used the increase for speaker fees and other expenses. “We could have used that with out a doubt,” Peckham said. He said he was new to the pro cedure this year and hopes to be better prepared for next year’s hearing.
