We went to the meeting, so you didn’t have to.
ASUO Senate failed to meet quorum the second time this summer, due to miscommunication. Senate president emeritus Max Burns, called in via Facebook from a cafe in Cambodia to prevent the body from holding another emergency meeting.
Burns has been volunteering in Thailand the last two months to help the elephants. He has not been involved with ASUO business since then.
“Thanks for saving the day,” Senate President Ednaly Jimenez-Gomez said to Burns.
Last month, ASUO senate held an emergency meeting after three senators didn’t make it to the meeting on July 27. The body passed seven requests to return to surplus from NASU, KP, MTG, ROAR, Student Insurgent, CPLA and AMA.
Student publication Student Insurgent and ROAR requested $957.81, a considerable amount of summer senate surplus, to cover the cost of a new computer. Back in Spring term, the two groups transferred funds within their budget to order two new computers.
According to the letter they sent to the senate, only one of the computers made it to their office.
“[T]here was a bit of a mix up with the other and it wasn’t delivered to the ROAR Center in time to come out of the 2015-16 budget,” the letter read.
Since it wasn’t delivered in time for 2015-2016 fiscal year, Student Insurgent and ROAR were not able to use the money within their budget. Now, the two groups hope senate can cover the cost. Their budget for 2016-2017 is $12,462, and it would set the two groups back 23 percent if they spend it on the computer.
Augustine Beard, the head of ROAR, said the two groups could also tap in Executive’s equipment repair fund, which ASUO President Quinn Haaga was looking into.
Burns criticized ROAR and Student Insurgent for “dropping the ball” during Spring term when the two groups requested the transfer for the computers.
Senate decided to pass the two groups’ requests because that would be “the easiest option,” Jimenez-Gomez said.
Senate voted to table the American Institute of Architecture Students’ request of $641 in reimbursement for a conference trip to Washington, D.C. in July.
The Men’s Center requested $480 to cover “monthly” telephone charges. None of the members of the student group showed up to the meeting to answer questions from the senate.
Senator Madison Moskowitz speculated the request was to cover the annual flat cost for the group’s telephone charges, but the Men’s Center did not reach out the summer senate with its request, Moskowitz said.
Burns hesitated to authorize the request because it was nearly 10 percent of the summer senate’s budget. Senate voted to pass it anyway.
Earlier this year, ASUO voted to pass a $65,000 increase in the Men’s Center budget in hope of hiring a professional director. It was the biggest bump, a 249 percent increase, among all 170 ASUO-recognized student groups.