E&CR rules
Michael-Sean Kelly, Evaluation & Constitutional Review chair presented a committee report to the student senate at Wednesday’s senate meeting. A ruling was made by the E&CR in regards to chairperson of the elections committee Sen. Aaron O’Donnell’s question about the appropriateness of senate candidates.
Referring to Section 1.1.1 of the ASPSU Constitution, O’Donnell asked, “When a Senator is occupying one of the seven seats that are reserved for representing the listed schools and colleges, must the Senator’s affiliation to the school or college be academic in nature?” The E&CR ruled that the Elections Committee determines the appropriateness of a candidate for a seat.
SFC hits an OSPIRG in the senate
SFC’s final allocations were not approved at the Wednesday’s meeting. The student senate did not pass the allocations because the SFC refused to fund OSPRIG $80,605.20.
Sen. Mike Arrington made a move to reject the allocations. He passed out a letter addressed to President Bernstine to the senate which says, “Unfortunately, the SFC has not recommended adequate funding for OSPIRG, and the process OSPIRG went through to receive its funding for 2004-2005 has not been fair or equitable.”
Tracy Earll, SFC Chair, responded to this motion by saying that the SFC members stand by their decision.
“For some reason OSPIRG becomes the center of discussion whenever we discuss SFC allocations,” observed Sen. Dan Mikhno.
He said that there is a great deal of disapproval in the community, not for what OSPIRG does, but for where OSPIRG gets their money.
Sen. Caine Lowery said, “The funding that it’s at right now, it won’t be able to do its job,” adding that, “the funding level to me doesn’t reflect what OSPIRG does and what OSPIRG does for this campus … If there is this much controversy surrounding this I say we fail this budget and let President Bernstine deal with it.”
Sen. Kashea Kilson-Anderson agreed with Lowery, saying, “Are we funding them at what they’re comfortable with or what is fair and just? … Sometimes we have to do what is right.”
“We can’t afford to give everyone what they want,” said Sen. Kaveh Heravi.
Sen. Aaron O’Donnell said that OSPIRG is without a doubt the most loved or the most reviled group on campus.
“Apparently we don’t have problems with anything else,” he said, adding, “They can’t do it all, no amount of money that we give them can let them do it all.”
Tracy Earll said, “To reject the entire budget based on one group, that’s just ludicrous.”
Sen. Dan Mikhno said, “Let’s just get it over with and vote on it.”
OSPIRG supporters in the audience applauded when the final vote on the budget failed 11-9-1.
Harper for rec. center
The senate moved on to hear Sen. Christy Harper talk about the proposal for a new student recreation and housing center, which can be voted on during student elections March 10-12.
According to a handout from Harper, “The proposed recreation center was created because of the fact that “our current faculty was built in 1996 and does not meet the demands of today’s students or allow for tomorrow’s student.”
One of the demands not met was brought up earlier by Chase LoGreco, SFC vice chair, who said, “The Stott Center is not accessible for disabled students … an entire group of students are isolated from the Stott Center because it’s not accessible.”
More information about the recreation center can be found at www.studentreccenter.pdx.edu