Delashaw, Dotters-Katz back down from trip stance
At the last ASUO Senate meeting, ASUO Vice President Johnny Delashaw warned the Senate that, if it approved the Survival Center’s request for almost $5,000 to fund a trip to Washington, D.C., for an environmental conference, ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz would veto the request.
The Senate approved the request anyway, with Sen. Sanford Weintraub (Seat , Graduate and Law Schools) saying his colleagues should not allow themselves to be “bullied” by Delashaw. Delashaw told them he was skeptical of the value the conference would have to the University and reiterated his and Dotters-Katz’s oft-stated wariness of funding trips for students with ASUO money.
Representatives from the Survival Center pleaded with the Senate to allocate them the money for the Power Shift Conference anyway. Conference organizers expect to bring together about 10,000 college students to lobby the new Obama Administration on environmental issues. Dotters-Katz and Delashaw have emphasized their commitment to environmental sustainability, but it appeared that their aversion to funding trips for students, which they see as a corrupt practice, would win out.
However, Delashaw sent out an e-mail Monday that said Dotters-Katz would not veto the request. Delashaw said additional information provided by junior Jeremy Blanchard, who is coordinating the University’s delegation at the conference swayed him.
Blanchard, said Delashaw, gave evidence that more than three times as many students as had originally been mentioned were interested in attending the conference. He also said Blanchard and Delashaw’s own rival for the vice-presidency in the 2008 election, Jesse Hough, had given evidence of extensive fund-raising and a precedent for the request.
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