PFC
continued from page 1A
groups that had not yet gone be
fore the PFC. These cuts would
help grant the needed $18,500 to
fund the coordinator position.
“For us to look at [the budgets]
again to cut more out in order for
us to get a position, that’s just un
fair for other programs,” Chen
said.
But Rice said the PFC always
looks at each group with the same
criteria: how a program spent its
money in the previous year, the
amount the group is requesting
and, sometimes, the amount the
group received in the previous
year. She said she and Sedgwick
only approached Chen because
they wanted his input on how to
dead with both the ASUO and the
MCC wanting the budget increases.
“I don’t recall anything like that,”
Rice said, referring to telling Chen to
choose one position or cut budgets.
But when asked how she ex
pected Chen to look at the situa
tion objectively, Rice responded,
“I don’t know ... I guess we were
... looking for something to go off
of, someone to say, ‘This is OK.’”
After the conversation, Chen
sent an e-mail to Rice and Sedg
wick on Jan. 24 expressing his
feelings. He wrote that he “felt it
was unfair to even suggest to cut
other budgets for the Execs [sic] or
any other budget,” and that “it is
extremely unfair to pit two large pro
grams (thqt serve unique student in
trest [sic]) against each other. ”
When asked why she felt Chen
would write such an e-mail if she
and Sedgwick never asked Chen
to choose between the positions or
cut other programs’ budgets, Rice
said, “Maybe he misunderstood
what we were trying to ask him. ”
The early bird gets the worm
Chen said he is upset with the
PFC’s hearing procedure overall
because the ASUO is treated like
any other student group. He said
the executive is distinctly differ
ent from other student groups be
cause it’s responsible for adminis
tering and protecting $7 million of
student fees.
“It’s like comparing the White
House to the Eugene DMV.” he said.
But Rice said the PFC had to be
fair and approach the ASUO’s
budget like they would any other
student group — looking at its roll
over and post-close figures.
ASUO Vice President Mitra
Anoushiravani said she felt that if
the ASUO had gone before the
PFC earlier, rather than last, it
would have improved its chances
of getting the coordinator position
because the PFC would not have
been caught up with meeting the
0 percent benchmark.
“I think that there was too much
benchmarking over their [the PFC]
' heads, and they wanted to make
[the ASUO] handle the burden of
being the bad guys,” she said.
But Rice maintains that order
does not matter.
“We started cutting budgets
from day one, and we ended cut
ting budgets... I don’t believe that
order has anything has to do with
it,” Rice said in the beginning of
the interview with the Emerald.
But toward the end of the inter
view, Rice said that the PFC may
have felt like it had to make deci
sions betweeh the two groups be
cause they came before the PFC
during the same week, Jan. 24-28.
“I’d say that order doesn’t mat
, ter, but in a way, I guess at times, it
kind of does,” she said. “I don’t
think order matters in the sense
that if you come early you’ll get
more money, you go late, you’ll get
less money. But I think it matters
in terms of when it’s the crunch
time and you see how many
groups we have ... and the bench
mark becomes stronger and
stronger in our minds.”
Picking and choosing
But not just the ASUO is upset
about the process.
Jay Breslow, coordinating intern
for the University’s diversity pro
gram who went before the PFC on
behalf of the MCC, said the PFC
created an environment where the
two groups competed against each
other for the amount of money
they would receive. Breslow said
Sedgwick approached him before
the MCC’s hearing and told him
that because the PFC could only
afford one of the positions, he
should tell her why the MCC de
served the money more.
Breslow said he felt it was un
fair to ask him to say that one posi
tion was more important than the
other because he supported both.
The MCC requested and received
an increase of $38,743, most of
which will fund the position.
“That’s not the way it should
be,” he said.
Sedgwick said she didn’t re
member those details of her con
versation with Breslow, but she
said it would be the “logical thing”
for her to ask those questions.
Rice said the PFC never ap
proached the situation as the
ASUO versus the MCC. She said
the PFC saw a value in the MCC
position but not in the ASUO posi
tion. She said it was clear that
those who voted on it didn’t value
the ASUO position because the
appeals to the PFC and Student
Senate failed.
Rice said money may have been
factored in to the benchmark for
the ASUO position if the PFC had
known the ASUO was planning to
request the money before the 0
percent benchmark was set. But
she said she was not aware of ei
ther the ASUO’s or the MCC’s re
quests until she received their
budget requests in December.
But Anoushiravani said she told
Rice during a Nov. 3 meeting with
her about the ASUO’s benchmark
recommendation that the ASUO
would be pursuing that position in
its budget. She said she factored the
money for the position into the exec
utive’s 0 percent benchmark recom
mendation that it gave to the PFC.
“It’s not been a secret to any
body in the student government
that Wylie and I have been plan
ning on reinstating the position
from the beginning,” she said. “We
said that when we got into office.”
Breslow said that when the PFC
realized that the benchmark was
n’t attainable because of the MCC
position, it should have looked at
the programs objectively, which
he said he didn’t feel happened.
“The fact that they tried as hard
as they could to met the bench
mark ... that’s an OK thing to do,”
he said. “Unfortunately, it did not
benefit students as far as the
ASUO coordinator position. ”
No comparison
Chen said the PFC’s decision to
not fund the coordinator position
will ultimately harm students and
next year’s executive by not hav
ing a person in the ASUO office
who can help students with bu
reaucratic paper work and who
has an institutional memory.
“The big issue is having some
one in our office help advocate on
issues ... and historical reference
and legal reference,” he said.
“That will help empower us to
make good, ethical decisions in
what we do here.”
But Sedgwick said that the
ASUO can always try again for the
position next year.
“I don’t think enough time has
elapsed to prove that this position
is necessary ... and the MCC had
never had a position of that kind,
and I felt that they had demon
strated adequately that it was nec
essary.”
Anoushiravani, however, said
the two programs should have
never been compared and that
both should have gotten funding.
“It’s easier to say no to us be
cause you’re not saying no to di
versity, and so [the PFC was] put
ting the responsibility on us to
make a choice, which shouldn’t
even have been a choice in the first
place,” she said. “It’s not yes to stu
dent accountability and no to diver
sity, they’re apples and oranges.”
The Oregon Humanities Center presents:
THE ROBERT AND BEVERLY LEWIS LECTURE
a .. IN THE HUMANITIES
Eugene Eoyang
Professor, Comparative Literature
and East Asian Language^ and Cultures
Indiana University
in a lecture entitled
When I find myself, what do I find
and who did the looking—
Intercnltural Challenges to the Notion of Self
Thursday, February 24,2000
4:00 p.m. Gerlinger Alumni Lounge
Lecture is free and open to the public. Reception, book signing, and book sale will follow.
For more information, or for disability accommodations, call the Oregon Humanities
Center at 346-3934.
I I J I . I , I ■ ■■ ' "" ■ ' :l ■ ~ - ■ " ' i" ' ■
Burton • Santa Cruz
Morrow • Rossignol
•Salomon *K2
YOUR SNOWBOARDING
HEADQUARTERS
13th STawrence • Eugene • 683-1300
Brio's Ski Bus to
Willamette Pass.
111. Bachelor
\ Hoodoo!
Inr\m wwiwii pp
Sign up at Berg’s!
Call For Details. Reservations
& Information.
13th & Lawrence • Eugene • 683-13001
Fly Bv-i-fosh Aiv-ways'/
San Frandisdo to London f*54”T
Seattle to London fi>0^*
* Taxes not intluded/Vestrittions apply/price n>ay vat-y defending on dates
Council
Trawl
IEE: Council on international Educational Exchange
University of Oregon 877 1/2 East 13^
Street
Building
the
EMU
In
Eugene
(541)344
2263
Eugene
^ Hi ’
TheJSUPresents ...
The Jewish
Movie Fest!
Thursday,
February 24th.
146 Straub Hall.
6 pm.
Friday,
February 25th.
146 Straub Hall.
8 pm.
Saturday,
February 26th.
146 Straub Hall.
6 pm.
About the Jews of Yemen — A
Vanishing Culture 77 min. color
Documentary. Narrated by t'eter Thomas. Dr. Johanna
Spector's stunning documentary captures this rich culture,
as it is practiced today in modem Israel.
Europa Europa. I15 min. Color. German
and Russian with English Subtitles. The fascinating
true story of Solomon Perel, a very courageous German
Jewish teenager who survived WW11 by concealing his true
identity. Ratal R.
Hitchhikers. 47 min. Color. Hebrew with
English subtitles. On his way to Tel Aviv, Yehezkel picks
up three hitchhikers — an orthodox soldier, a free-spirited
young woman and an Israeli Arab. Each traveler is
representative of different segments of Israeli society today
in a most poignant and humorous way. Explicit Language
Song of the Siren 91 min. Color. Hebretv
with English Subtitles. Thirtv-two-year-old Talila is
preoccupied with her love life and couldn't possibly care
less about the wailing sirens that pierce Tel Aviv skies
nightly during the Gulf War. This film is playful, mature
and full of sass.
* There will be a 15 minute intermission.
008572
FREE!! With a kosher canned item for TBI and/or a personal
hygiene item for Looking Glass. Open to the Public!
For more information, please contact the JSU at 346-4366