ASUO Meeting of Nov. 19, 2008

You could tell Wednesday’s ASUO meeting was important. You could tell from the acronyms under “Benchmark Presentations” on the agenda, which meant the Senate ultimately allocated nearly $10 million in theoretical budgeting. You could tell because some senators were all tarted up in their finest makeup and business attire–including an elastic tie that began the meeting around Sen. Schultz’s neck but had climbed to his forehead by the end. You could tell because of the concerned students huddled in the corners, and perched atop chairs pulled from some secret closet by EMU director Dusty Miller. And you could tell because the taste of trepidation, adrenaline and young men and women with something big to prove was radiating off of every body in the room. The senate was going to go for any throat it could find from the outset.

Senate President Alex McCafferty, usually at pains to project an almost drab affectlessness, seemed to have the faintest of fierce sparks in his watery eyes. In an uncharacteristic move, he even raised his voice over the din at times. ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz, in jeans and what were either shitkicker boots or some very hardcore dress shoes, ran through his entire repertoire of testosterone-driven emotions: booming anger, manful frustration, silver-tongued too-cool, squinting bemusement and finally pile-driver ruthlessness. He is a truly frightening sight. Sen. Jones was all winks, Sen. Nix was all barbs, Sen. Weintraub was all elocution, Sen. Sheldon was all dexterity and Sen. Gower was all smirks.

If you were going to one ASUO Senate meeting (assuming you’re into that sort of thing), this was the one, at least from among the ones I have seen.

Before the heady word-slinging began over the three committees about to present, there were surplus requests to get out of the way. These are routine requests by student groups for funding that the Senate hears at every meeting and the senators tore into them for sparring practice.

First came a request for $1,000 from the Japanese Student Organization to cover the cost of the last, unsuccessful Japan Night. The JSO had the misfortune of choosing a night that turned out to be, by Oregon standards, snowed-under, to host an event that usually earns money for them. Few showed to pay the admission, some of the entertainment cancelled and they made less than four hundred dollars. They said they needed the money to recoup that loss, lest they be forced to radically downsize their organization. Without too much fuss, the senate approved their request.

Next was a far bigger fish from the senate’s point of view–Dotters-Katz himself. He wanted some costs covered for the trip to Portland for the Northwest Student Leadership Conference which the ASUO executive had funded–more than $5000 worth of costs. He has come to the senate asking for surplus money before and they’re not happy about it because the executive has its own funds. They said he ought to raise the money himself and he shouldn’t come to them asking them to pay for things that have already been paid for. He said he raises lots of money for worthy causes and the senate raises none. It got as close to personal as these young men and women’s senses of decorum allow. In the end, they agreed to refund him the cost of travel and registration but not lodging–a total of $3625.

Then a representative for the OUTLAWs, the Law School’s LGBTQ Alliance presented. The group went to the Lavendar Law conference in San Francisco, but she didn’t take taxes into account when she asked for money from the Senate initially and ended up having to pay about $350 of hotel expenses with her credit card. She asked for reimbursement, which doubtless would have been granted quickly, but for the feelings about retroactive funding leftover in the room. In the end though, it passed.

With that out of the way, it was time for the committees to present their benchmarks. The PFC went first and their presentation was information-packed, full of numbers and acronyms and seemingly airtight research, delivered so quickly and mercilessly that neither I nor anyone in the room was quite able to digest it all. My mental gag reflex was not becalmed by the fact that this was also the moment Dotters-Katz chose to whisper at me. But I got the basics–they were proposing a 5.35 percent increase of the programs budget and had done a lot of research with very little help. Nobody seemed prepared to strongly challenge them. Vice President Johnny Delashaw meekly proposed that, since his own estimates for the more than $1.7 million budget were roughly a thousand dollars lower, that the two should meet in the middle, but it was the committee’s proposal that was eventually approved. Only Sen. Nix resisted, saying “I’m against taxing our students more and more every year.” His was the only nay vote.

The EMU Board came next, requesting the maximum possible increase: 7 percent. Most in the body concurred with Dotters-Katz when he said he would increase their budget more if he could. The EMU’s finances are evidently dire and the EMU is looking at what other schools do to support their student unions–bookstores, passport offices and the like–to see if they could bring those techniques to Eugene. One representative for the EMUB said “The building is falling apart as it is.” It chilled the excitement in the room considerably.

Last to present was the ACFC, which negotiates student contracts with organizations like Student Legal Services, (for now) LTD, the Daily Emerald and the purchase of student tickets. The only real talking point in their presentation was the situation of the executive’s LTD proposal, which aims to take LTD off of the ACFC’s slate of contracts and create a committee to oversee it and other transportation-related services. Without the LTD involved, the budget for ACFC will actually decrease by more than 12 percent. But it’s not certain that the resolution will pass and if it doesn’t, from the sound of things all hell will break loose

Throwing LTD on top of everything else would require an increase (rather than a decrease) in the budget of the committee of more than 12 percent. That’s against the regulations that govern state-run committees, which state that budgets can only increase by 7 percent from year to year. So, if the ACFC was forced to fun LTD, as things stand, it could force massive cuts in funding for other contracts. Several senators were saying it could even mean no student tickets for the Civil War game next year. The LTD resolution is very likely to pass and it’s nearly impossible that the ASUO and administration could bungle badly enough for it to come to that, but it does give you an idea of the gravity of the issues we face.

The final decision was to compromise by setting ACFC’s benchmark as high as possible: a 7 percent increase. But even that would necessitate massive cuts, should the ASUO’s plan fail.

All of that took a lot out of everyone concerned. After the ACFC presented, the room was nearly empty, but for the senators, Dotters-Katz, Delashaw, myself, and Robert, the only person who sits through every ASUO meeting aside from me and the senators. Sen. Jones presented excitedly about creating a vision statement for the senate, something Dotters-Katz described as “the greatest thing that has happened in senate this year.” At this point it was very late and the excitement and positivity of Jones’ presentation seemed to consume the last of the Senate’s energy.

Then a bomb dropped in Sen. Kallaway’s inbox.

It was a grievance filed by Michelle Haley of the EMU Board against Sen. Nathan Perley, the senate’s treasurer, charging him with 11 counts of nonfulfillment of duty. It hit Perley like a bullet. He couldn’t look at the senate as he responded, but his voice quivered with what sounded to me like indignation, anger and a little fear. He read down Haley’s document in an effort to refute each charge. The senate responded with kind words and advice on how to clear his name–every senator who spoke seemed to agree that the charges were baseless. Perley thought the problem stemmed from someone impersonating him on the Commentator blog. This one will be bloody and I expect to write a report on it for Tuesday’s Emerald.

The last real talking point of the meeting was the LTD resolution. It was tabled so that it could be looked over by the senate rules committee and discussed as soon as possible. Nobody much wanted to talk about it at that point, though. The meeting, which had begun at 7p.m. had dragged on past midnight. Everyone was tired. Everyone was drained. Everyone wanted to go home. It was no time to discuss something of such great import. That is for the first meeting after Thanksgiving and it will be thunderous.