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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2005)
Senators share opinions of year's achievements The stipend model and a resolution against playing teams with indigenous mascots are among those discussed BY PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Reforming pay rates for student leaders and monitoring the incidental fee are among the challenges new ASUO Student senators face next year, former senators told the Emerald. The former legislators shared their opinions on the Senate’s greatest achievement this year, what the Senate could have done differently and what senators should do next year. Although at least 24 students sat on the 18-member Senate this year, the Emerald contacted those still on the Senate as of May 24. Of those, only two will return next year. Arthur Jeiranian, Seat 4 Jeiranian said every decision the Senate makes is important, but he couldn’t comment on a specific de cision because he was only on the Senate for a few months. He said the Senate should have voted on changes to its rules. Lack of time and scheduling conflicts prevented the vote, he said. “It would have been nice to have people with more experience, even though people with experience are on next year’s Senate,” he said. Jeiranian said he will remain at the University next year and may be in volved with student government. Jack Crocifisso, Seat 7 The Senate succeeded in preventing students from paying for 24/7 library service during Dead Week and Finals Week, Crocifisso said. “It was a service that was being pro vided to a lot of students,” he said, adding that there seems to be a trend to make students pay for more services. He said senators especially need to watch the Student Recreation Center budget. "Their budget was definitely one that increased dramatically this last year, and I would predict that it would continue to increase, but it needs to do so responsibly, and I think that’s the responsibility of the Senate to look at that,” he said. Crocifisso also said he wished the Senate would have had more time to deliberate over some of the major programs’ budgets, some of which “came down to the wire.” He also said he disagreed with the injunc tions the ASUO Constitution Court placed against three members of the Programs Finance Committee. “I personally ... didn’t agree with the reasoning behind them,” he said. “I don’t know if the Senate could have taken a different re sponse to it than it did.” He said the stipend model is an “ob vious, glaring thing that is going to come up next year. ” Crocifisso said he was appointed by the ASUO Executive to the EMU Board of Directors for next year. Austin Shaw-Phillips, Seat 12 Shaw-Phillips said he was im pressed by the abilities and commitment of his peers in the gov ernment this year. But he said the way government leaders handled the Sun river incident backfired, overshadow ing efforts of government members. “Not to beat the subject to death, but I would have liked to see indi vidual senators take responsibility for what happened on the retreat,” he said. He also said the stipend model still needs to be addressed, although he is confident it will be. Shaw-Phillips said he hopes to work for AmeriCorps after graduating this year. Rona Yang, Seat 13 Yang wrote in an e-mail that the Senate’s most important decision con cerned the stipend model “because (it) affects more than just one group or one section of the University.” She also said the Senate should have handled the stipend model issue differently. “I’m not sure how I would have done it differently but I do regret not working on the stipend model... the first time around, over break,” she wrote. “I know that we all worked hard to correct the problem, but proba bly a little too late.” She said the inaction with proposed Senate rules also should have been addressed differently. “Our rules committee worked very hard all year adding new rules and changing old ones,” she wrote. “Since we did not approve these at the last senate meeting, they are now given to the new senators without explanation of them. ... I don’t think that is fair to the new senators or the old ones who worked so diligently on them.” Yang said sending students to conferences for any purpose should be examined. “I think that next year people should address, how much is this re any neiping me wnoie student body if only a limited number of stu dents are able to go or certain students are picked to go, be it their abilities and how they came about those abili ties,” she wrote. Yang added that the Senate needs to analyze food holding. “I guess this is more for the PFC, but I think senators need to address this and make sure it really will help the development of students and not just to help feed people,” she said. Yang said she hopes to obtain a po sition in the ASUO Controllers’ office next year. BarettVolkmann, Seat 14 The Senate didn’t adequately ad dress the stipend model issue, Volk mann wrote in an e-mail. “(The) PFC cut stipends to get to their benchmark after over allocating funds,” he wrote. “The Senate’s re sponse to this was to give additional funding to stipends, putting the actual PFC budget over benchmark. The stipend model issue needs to be ad dressed next year. ” Volkmann wrote that he will be a program representative to the EMU Board. He will also be the Greek advo cate for the executive. Nick Hudson, Seat 15 The Senate’s resolution condemning University sports teams from playing teams with “indigenous mascots” was impor tant, Hudson said. “I think that was really important because we took a stance that may nave oeen unpopular with the athletic de partment, but it was very important for na tive students,” he said. Hudson also said “reshaping the stipend model” was a major Senate action. Although the Senate wasn’t fully able to address the issue, the resolution created fairness across the board. He said the Senate should have act ed differently on the PFC’s final budget because the committee exceeded its benchmark. He said 7 percent increas es every year hurt the incidental fee and students’ pocketbooks. “That is something that needed to be dealt with in a different way,” he said. Hudson said the Senate needs to ad dress the stipend model by decreasing the amount of stipends and creating a fair solution. He said he will work toward that goal as finance coordinator for the ex ecutive next year. Stephanie Stoll, Seat 16 Stoll said she was proud of the Sen ate’s work to secure library funding and of its resolution against playing teams with indigenous mascots. “(The resolution) was really impor tant for us to take action on,” she said. “I think it was important for us to show our support for the groups that were affected by that. ” She said the Senate should have SENATE, page 12 PART 2 OF 2 Today: Remaining representa tives consider their terms in office. Tuesday: Senators reflect on suc cesses and failures. UNIVERSITY OF OREGON O! 2005 Summer Session Classes Begin June 20 Register for Summer Classes Book Your Summer in Oregon Pick up your free summer catalog today in the Summer Session office (333 Oregon Hall), at the UO Bookstore, or read it online. You can speed your way toward graduation by taking required courses during summer. 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Spring Students of the Term If you can identify with one or more of these, then you are a non traditional student: • Delayed enrollment or transferred from Jr. college • Over the age of 24 • Part-time or distance student • Work full-time • Did not complete High school • Have dependents other than spouse • Financially independent from your parents From left to right: Brandi Farish: 26, Senior in Anthropology and Philosophy enjoying the human experience and life-long learning, Kimberly Gwynne: Environmental Science major with two kids (18 and 9), struggling to graduate, Shimeon Greenwood: 23, pre-business major who transferred from CCC, and is the treasurer of the UO Pre-Law Society.
