Last night Senate appointed people to two vacant seats – Mike Broetzmann to Seat Three and Demic Tipitino to Seat Nine. Broetzmann was voted in 7-1-7. Hilarity ensued when it became apparent that Broetzmann couldn’t be appointed right away because he already held a seat on the Programs Finance Committee. It was determined after several minutes of confused cross-talk that the only way to proceed was: (1) to table the motion to appoint Broetzmann, (2) have a speaker address him and allow him to verbally resign, (3) vote again to put the motion back on the table and (4) finally vote to appoint him. Ladies and gentlemen, your ASUO Senate.
Tipitino was also voted on to Senate 9-1-7. Tipitino is a stand-up guy; he’s involved in the College Republicans and is a strong voice for fiscal conservatism. During his confirmation hearing he said that though Senate had “much more room to be critical in its spending.” He specifically objected to how much money Senate gives to groups for conferences. (Tipitino also had to resign from his Department Finance Committee seat. Speaking of the DFC …)
This, ladies and gents, is what it’s all about. For generations, the OC has railed against the ever-rising Incidental Fee. For decades, we’ve been the only folks who have given a shit about trying to hold it steady or bring it down. And then Sam Dotters-Katz was elected. For some crazy reason or another, Sam actually agrees that saving students I-Fee money is a worthy cause, and unlike any ASUO president (that I’m aware of) he has actually made the effort cut the Incidental Fee. That’s right, for Spring term, your incidental fee has been cut from $195 to $95. The best part? He also proved that fiscal responsiblity is not code for “racist (or otherwise despicable) defunding of student groups and services.” Rather, Dotters-Katz used the overrealized fund to buy down the fee, saving students $100 for Spring Term and eliminating an irresponsible, unaccountable million dollar (or more) annual giveaway. I’ve never found a record of the fee being cut in this manner before in ASUO history, and the fee for Spring Term will be the lowest it has been in over a decade.
As part of a proud tradition of OC fiscal conservatives, I can’t help feeling immensely proud that our magazine and this website helped carry the torch until this moment. Fighting for fiscal responsibility in the ASUO has always seemed like tilting at windmills, but this confirms that every little bit makes a difference. I’m sure other alumni can speak to how improbable this development sounds. If half the students who came to the UO could bring their idealistic sights down to an attainable goal (like saving every student $100 per term) this campus would be a better place. Congratulations to Sam for keeping his commitment to this goal, despite the many distractions and temptations to just do ASUO business as usual. This is a historic achievement! Hit the jump for Dotters-Katz’s press release.
I’ve got your weekly ASUO Senate bullet-points, but before I get to that … I will be on the campus radio station (KWVA 88.1) tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. talking about ASUO news with Sen. Nick Schultz and the wonderful Lyzi Diamond. Tune in or listen online. Moving on …
ASUO Exec Sam Dotters-Katz has appointed former Senate President Athan Papailiou to the seat recently vacated by Kate Jones. Papailiou is a strong advocate for fiscal responsibility and a friend of the Commentator. He was elected on the Campaign for Change slate and served as Senate President for most of last year.
Also, after consulting with my Senate Exploratory Committee, I have applied for the vacant journalism seat on Senate. Both of our confirmation hearings will be on Wednesday and will be hilarious. For example, here is the cover letter I sent along with my application:
Dear Associated Students of the University of Oregon;
I am writing to apply for ASUO Senate Seat 19: Journalism. I am a journalism major and nominally more intelligent than a trained circus bear, which, from what I’ve seen, qualifies me for the position.
I am interested in the position because the chairs in the ASUO Boardroom look really, really comfortable. Sometimes there are also snacks for ASUO Senators. I am so down for that. I wish to become a part of the ASUO nobility and trod the lowly plebs beneath my gilded feet.
I’m a firm believer in strong, autocratic government. My biggest influences in this regard are, in ascending order: Teddy Roosevelt, Ghengis Khan and Conan (the barbarian). Enclosed is my application, my resume and a picture of me shaking hands with President Frohnmayer. (He’s my bro.) I look forward to hearing your response. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely,
I posted earlier today about ASUO Exec Sam Dotters-Katz’s proposed amendments to the ASUO Constitution. Well, Daniel Bachhuber brought it to my attention that maybe some people don’t understand what the hell the Daily Emerald and I were talking about. Explanation:
First of all:Here is the full text of the proposed amendments. These proposals will be sent before the ASUO Constitution Court to be decided on*. If approved, they will be added to the ASUO Constitution, the governing document of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. Dotters-Katz is proposing four main amendments: (more…)
While Senate opinions of the changes have been either undecided or positive, ASUO Senator Kate Jones doesn’t approve of the timing. When Dotters-Katz announced the changes at last week’s ASUO Senate meeting, Jones stated, “I’d like to see (the over-realized changes) happen next year. We allocated a lot of money at the beginning of the year, and we did so under the impression that there would be a large sum of money in the over-realized fund at the end of the year.”
Ah, the ol’ bait and switch. I find the proposed changes doubly enjoyable because Sen. Jones and the rest of the spend-happy crew on the Senate are getting hosed.
I’ve got a convenient bullet-point wrap-up of the Senate meeting after the jump, but first The Big News:
The Oregon University System is taxing the Incidental Fee. Yes, they’re taxing a tax – a tax of a tax on students. Apparently this is a regular practice (known as “assessment”), but it was brought up tonight in the Executive announcements because the OUS upped the tax from two to three percent … after EMU and PFC budgeting. This basically screws over student programs, as well as the EMU operating budget. Furthermore, there is no cap on how much the OUS can tax the I-fee.
The ASUO will lobby to set the I-fee off limits to the assessment tax. To be honest, I’m a little bit out of my depth on this; this is all what I gleaned from the Senate meeting. However, Michelle Haley, who is on the EMU Board, will be writing more about the issue.
Another Wednesday, another ASUO Senate Meeting. I can’t tell if there will be anything juicy from reading the agenda (being the enthralling piece of prose that it is), but the Survival Center is putting in a special request (surplus request for “revolutionary filing cabinet,” I presume).
I’ll be doing my part as a 21 century, techno-wizard journalist and twittering the night’s proceedings. As usual, the sideshow starts at seven p.m.
P.S. Oh, I guess there is that whole “presidential debate” thing tonight, or so I hear, but who cares about that?
I had to leave the Senate meeting early tonight. Well, not early. I’d already been sitting in the boardroom for three hours, and the Senate was not even halfway through the agenda. Besides a brief appearance by Zach Vishanoff, it was a joyless headache of an affair. But on to the real news …
As I previously mentioned, the ASUO Senate had $196,000 in over-realized requests to approve or disapprove. Part of the money was rollover from last year, and the rest was the allocated money from the denied BWA and CASL proposals. If the BWA money is not spent tonight, it will most likely roll into the general fund, meaning students would see nothing for it. There is also a chance that the CASL money will roll into the G-fund if not spent.
Unlike most of the time when the Senate gets to throw money around, though, they weren’t happy about it. (more…)
There’s a big ol’ ASUO Senate meeting tonight at 7 p.m. I’ll be reporting on it; well, at least some of it. The meeting is projected to go pretty long. This is because the Senate is doling out $200,000 in over-realized funds. You can read a partial list of the requests in the above link.
I’ll have a blog post breaking down the meeting tonight, and I’ll be “twittering” (god, I hate that word so much. I mean, I’m all for new media, but can’t you give it a name that doesn’t make my blood boil?) breaking developments and snarky comments.
It’s already posted in the comments of another post, but I liked this so much I figured I would give it a full post. This video was apparently found on the UO server.
Mark Twain once said, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys their ink by the barrel.” Unfortunately, this is a lesson the ASUO Senate has not taken to heart. Editor-in-Chief of the ODE Laura Powers has already filed a spat of grievances, against the Senate for violating Oregon Public Meeting Law, and today she added another to the list.
The Senate Over-Realized Committee held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming requests. This was illegal because (a) it was only announced five hours beforehand, instead of the required 24, and (b) the meeting included a non-binding, up-down vote on the requests. This was done in the name of “consensus building.”
When the Con Court prohibited the Senate “from implementing any rule, policy or resolution currently under review,” they went ahead and did it anyways. Likewise, when Senate President Athan Papailiou told senators not to bring up the clandestine meeting, Nate Gulley went ahead and did it anyways.
In response, Powers issued a broadside against the Senate in today’s ‘Ol Dirty, calling them out for blatantly disregarding OPML. Read excerpts from it, as well as a douchebaggy email from Nate Gulley, after the jump. (more…)
So this weekend I took one of those SAPP (Substance Abuse Prevention Program) seminars that seem to be a requirement for graduating seniors who need just a couple more upper-division credits. This weekend’s topic was hate crimes.
Anyway, at the end of the seminar the speaker opened up the floor to those students on campus who wanted to speak out against hate.
A girl two seats away from me raised her hand and said, “Last fall the Oregon Commentator published an issue where they called girls ’scrunts’.”
In the fall of 2006 the Commentator defined a “scrunt” as: “A female, typically a freshman. Generally a scrunt lacks a father figure and is extremely susceptible to peer pressure and persuasion. Scrunt is something that one rustles. ’Hey dude, let’s go dorm stormin’ and rustle up some scrunt.’”
I don’t know what she was so upset about. I mean she’s been carrying this around with her for two years. It must have really affected her. I’m just going to do the responsible thing here and blame Ted. Why? Because it’s fun to rile up Ted.
Take Back the Campus was what it was. I’m a little embarrassed at my own ignorance of the situation; I thought it would be more of an open forum. Silly me. It was obvious that a lot of work went into this. But just because one works hard doesn’t mean the results will be good. There were numerous petitions made, cameras, Zane Kesey was there, many (so many!) student presenters and the rest of the works. Yet, not much was accomplished with all these resources.
There were about 100 students who attended. I figure at least half were ASUO insiders and about half of the rest left half-way through. Some of the speakers were good, some were not. Depending upon the audience, some ideas were good and some were not. All together the forum informed maybe 25 students about issues that have been in the newspapers for weeks and months.
When it was all said and done, there was one dissenting voice. When the presentations were over and it opened up to “an open forum,” Ryan McCarrel asked to use the podium. In the past few weeks, he has been creating discussion via e-mails with political science students about apathy. He had a prepared statement, which he was not allowed to finish, about the need for change. Now imagine the irony of it all. On the chalk board “MAKE CHANGE” was written huge and “APATHY” with a slash through it was there too. McCarrel spoke about the problem of widespread apathy within the student body, and the desperate need for a change to better the student body as a whole. Sen. Nate Gulley yelled out “bullshit”. Sen. Patrick Boye interrupted to call out the Oregon Commentator (not sure why; we hadn’t said anything). It was obvious that those in charge did not want to have a discussion about change or apathy. They wanted to finish their job and go home.
Here is the speech that McCarrel didn’t get to finish. (more…)
After a 15 minute discussion about whether or not to have a discussion, followed by recess, and then another discussion – with three motions made to get the heck out of there in the mean time, two rescinded – the ASUO Senate finally decided to have a discussion about the resignation of Senate Vice President Donnie Kim. (more…)
