During their April 16 meeting, the University of Maine General Student Senate amended an act to reduce all executive, community association and representative board student employee salaries by 10 percent beginning next year.
For the past few meetings, the GSS has been working to find areas where the budget can be cut to save money for UMSG, Inc., after realizing payroll takes up nearly a quarter of the organization’s financial plan.
Executive salaries were previously reduced by 8.54 percent for next year during the GSS’ April 2 meeting, but an act to eliminate all community association and representative board job descriptions failed that same day.
During the following week’s meeting on April 9, the GSS postponed an act that would reduce executive, community association and representative payroll by 10 percent after speculation arose when specific employment position salary figures were questioned — specifically those of the Student Women’s Association.
The resolution returned to the GSS on April 16 with one amendment, which cut SWA’s co-chair salaries by $131 each to $1,050. This figure was calculated by adding a presidential and vice presidential salary together and dividing the total in half.
Third-year journalism student Casey Weed and fourth-year communication student Dana Freshley, SWA’s two co-chairs, spoke to the GSS after Vice President for Financial Affairs Raymond Updyke presented the resolution.
“Casey and I don’t agree with the 20 percent decrease in our pay,” Freshley said. “You guys are used to a system with a president and vice president, but with co-chairs, we share responsibilities and also perform the work a treasurer would normally do.”
“We have the same office hours,” Weed said. “Each [representative] board has a different system.”
Sen. Alicia Bolduc agreed with the resolution, arguing that each board should get the same “lump sum” of payroll finances and “divide it up however they like, whether that’s equal to two co-chairs or one large amount to the president and one lesser amount to a vice president.”
Weed responded, saying: “The reduction isn’t fair if it’s a 20 percent cut for us and other groups are only getting 10 percent.”
Each year, SWA puts on events like Take Back The Night, Pro Choice Week and the Vagina Monologues.
Vice President Sam Helmke reminded the GSS, like Vice President for Student Organizations Sarah Porter did during the April 9 meeting, that SWA co-chair salaries were passed through the GSS unanimously last year.
GSS advisor Hannah Hudson described the process of co-chair leadership as “consensus based decision making.” Farley elaborated, saying the organization “use[s] no voting process” and makes “choices through agreement.”
VPSO Porter continued to strongly oppose the pay cut.
“I completely understand the pay issues, but I’m totally against [this resolution],” Porter said. “[The decision to enact SWA co-chairs] was made last year and it was made for a reason. … You’ve got to look at the big picture and not compare groups. I’m 120 percent behind not [passing this resolution].”
Sen. Bolduc suggested the GSS pass “as is” and let the newly initiated Executive Committee “work things out later,” while Dao reminded the GSS that changes to budgets would not be implemented until the 2013-14 fiscal year, leaving time for the Executive Committee to “do more work.”
“It’s not [UMSG, Inc.’s] job to tell [the community association and representative boards] what to do, but it is our job to tell them what they do for us if we’re paying them,” Dao said, describing the situation as “difficult.”
“I like to look at it as two job descriptions, because [the community association and representative boards] were doing their own things far before we started paying them.”
Porter warned the GSS of going too fast.
“Here’s some advice for the future of Student Government,” Porter said. “As much as I appreciate how great we’ve been moving forward, I think we’ve been going too fast at times and not realizing what we’re doing in the large scheme of things.”
“I understand this is not a large cut in pay, but that’s not the point — we’re singling out a specific group without fully understanding what we’re doing,” Porter said.
Shortly before debate ended, Helmke yielded the chair and offered his opinion.
“This is not fair. Right now, we’re taking SWA and isolating them,” Helmke said. “We say we don’t compare groups, but that’s exactly what we’ve done here.”
Sen. Patrick Church moved to amend the resolution so SWA’s salary cut returned to the original 10 percent, saying, “I’m in favor of cutting, but now is not the time.”
The resolution was passed, as amended, reducing salaries by 10 percent across the board.
Employment policies amended
Updyke presented two resolutions having to do with UMSG, Inc.’s employment policies and consumer price index. Both were approved.
The first resolution will amend the policies to “clearly state” that contractual employees’ salaries are adjusted by a percentage to the CPI, meaning it will reduce their merit pay raises and keep their CPI.
“In an effort to reduce inflationary payroll costs throughout UMSG, Inc.,” the second resolution amended the policies to cease CPI increases and decreases for student and constitutional employees.
“Basically we’re saying that next year, employees will be give a flat pay so that it does not fluctuate with the economy,” Updyke said. “This will force [student and constitutional employees] to ask for raises instead of getting them automatically.”
FEPC Chair, Sergeant at Arms appointed
VPFA Updyke presented Bartley Kelliher, a fourth-year English and political science student, as the new Chair of Fair Elections Practices Commission, praising Kelliher on his “outstanding resume” and “excellent communication skills.”
“I will strive to do a great job in keeping all elections standard,” Kelliher said.
Sen. Caleb Shortt was also unanimously selected as the new Sergeant at Arms, running unopposed. The position opened up after Sen. William “Nick” Smith resigned earlier this month to prepare for his taking-over of the VPSO position.
Shortt is also the Graduate Student Senate Representative and Legal Services Liaison.
Five clubs present, MBS Corps receive prelim recognition
Women’s Ultimate Frisbee thanked the GSS for being awarded as Club of the Month for March and recapped their fall season.
Cheerleading Club presented on their trip to the National Cheerleaders/Dance Association Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships from April 10 to 14 in Daytona Beach, Fla. The club placed seventh in the Small Coed I section.
Dressage Club presented on its recent season. Club member Emma Oppewall said the team “had a very good year” and is currently ranked third in their conference.
Horticulture Club presented on its recent competition at the 2013 Garden Show & Spring Fling from April 5 to 7 in Bangor. The club received third place in ‘People’s Choice’ and was one of five teams to receive a Gardenscape Honorable Mention.
Shotokan Karate Club presented on its recent trip to the Saratoga Martial Arts Festival from April 5 to 7 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Maine Business School Corps, which has been active for seven years, received preliminary recognition. The group is a community outreach program and has 14 members.
Miscellaneous
An act to encourage the state of Maine to create a law providing medical amnesty for minors who seek treatment for alcohol poisoning was approved by the GSS. The encouraged law would be similar to UMaine’s Medical Amnesty and Good Samaritan Program. Sen. Alex Price sponsored the resolution.
Sens. Brittany Cote, Sydney Trask and Caleb Shortt will join President Dao, Vice President Helmke, Vice President of Student Organizations Porter and Vice President of Financial Affairs Updyke to form the new Executive Committee.
A new committee called the Special Committee for Student Awareness was created to help outreach efforts. It will consist of the president, vice president, vice president of student organizations, vice president of financial affairs, vice president of student entertainment, director of communications, chair of senate student service committee, one elected GSS senator and up to 10 unaffiliated UMaine undergrads.
Pres. Dao calls it a “think tank,” and says, “if it’s deemed sustainable, [the Special Committee for Student Awareness] will be turned into a real committee.”
Helmke issued an apology to the two co-chairs of SWA, saying he got “hit hard” with emails and was “grossly taken out of context in [The Maine Campus]” for what he said during the April 9 meeting.
The new president-elect for Graduate Student Government Richard Luc, a microbiology graduate student and graduate advisor of Student Heritage Alliance Council, spoke to the GSS about a more cohesive relationship between the two organizations that he intends to improve.
During her executive report, Porter spoke about a current situation on campus that began earlier in the month where a man has been “terrorizing student organizations” by showing up to student organization meetings.
Reportedly, the man — identified as Carl White by police — also physically assaulted someone. Police are on the lookout for White and intend on issuing him a criminal trespass warning. If he’s seen on campus again, he can be arrested.