Debates continue over who
controls student fee money
■Administrators and students
continue to disagree on how
much input students should get
in the budget process
By Kara Cogswell
Oregon Daily Emerald
Questions of control over student
fee money continue to strain the re
lationship between students and
University administrators.
They say they want to work to
gether to establish budgets and pro
grams funded by student fees.
But when it comes to determining
what role each should play in the de
cision-making process, students and
administrators often disagree on how
much control students should have.
Last spring, EMU administrators
angered many students and staff
members in the EMU when they
decided not to renew the contract
of Cultural Forum program co-ordi
nator Linda Dievendorf — who had
been at the University for 21 years.
Student supporters of Dieven
dorf said because her position was
funded with student incidental
fees, administrators should have
asked for their input before they
made the decision to not renew her
contract, which ends on May 24.
Dievendorf said EMU administra
tors Gregg Lobisser and Dusty Miller
did not tell her why her contract was
being terminated after 17 years.
But in the months that led up to
that announcement, she said she
clashed with administrators over
how to run the Cultural Forum. Ad
ministrators told her she needed to
direct students more on how to
spend the program budget, she said.
Dievendorf said that went against
her philosophy of letting students
learn through experience. Typically
students discuss programming pos
sibilities and then reach a consensus
as a group about what to do, she said.
Administrators rarely attended Cul
tural Forum events last year, she said.
And she said administrators do not
understand how the program works,
or what students are capable of.
“I really think they’re out of
touch with the programs we do,”
she said. “And I think they’re out of
touch with students on campus. ...
My termination is the tip of the ice
berg. I think it is reflective of ad
ministrative desires to control stu
Adam Amato Emerald
Former Cultural Forum co-director Linda Dievendorf sits at a meeting held last year.
Students attended the meeting to protest EMU administrators not renewing her contract.
uent tees and student programs.
And they’re not even trying to hide
that fact anymore.”
Lobisser, the director of student
activities in the EMU, said he
could not comment about Dieven
dorf’s termination.
Overall, he said he considers the
relationship between EMU admin
istrators and students to be “posi
tive and constructive.”
He said he works with students
on a daily basis, and keeps in touch
with what student groups are doing
by attending fall open houses and
other events throughout the year.
Accusations of administrators
abusing power usually stem from a
lack of understanding of the stu
dent incidental fee process, he said.
“Many students see the inciden
tal fee as essentially outside of
state budgets and state funds,” he
said. “The legal reality is that they
are state funds, and they must
comply with the statutes that ex
ist for the University.”
Lobisser said EMU programs
such as the Cultural Forum should
be managed differently than ASUO
sponsored groups, such as student
unions. In the EMU, he said, ad
ministrators take a more “directive”
approach to provide continuity
from year to year and to ensure pro
grams fit with University missions.
Graduate student Roger Adkins is
the Cultural Forum Queer Film Fes
tival coordinator and a member of
the Student Empowerment Group
(STEP), which was formed in re
sponse to Dievendorfs termination.
The goal of STEP is to change
University policies so that students
will always have a say over the use
of student fees, including hiring
and firing situations, he said.
Over the summer, student gov
ernment leaders, faculty members
and community members attended
the STEP meetings, he said.
Administrators do not trust stu
dents to create their own program
ming, Adkins said. And when they
do ask for student input, he said, it
is often after the fact.
“That’s University administra
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