Senate meets to review SFC budget

The Student Senate met on Tuesday to review the Student Fee Committee’s initial budget allocations. After heavy debate, the Senate voted to create a committee that will include both senators and SFC members to review major complaints in the budget.

The meeting, which normally lasts two hours, was extended by an hour to allow for a full discussion on the budget.

“I’m confident that we’ll be able to do good today,” ASPSU Vice President Ethan Smith said at the beginning of the meeting.

After the SFC presented its initial proposal, the Senate voted unanimously to deny the budget. However, the motion was later overturned in favor of further discussion before the March 15 deadline for final recommendations to the SFC.

Major complaints included the increased funding of the Athletics Department and the removal of the Oregon Student Association campus organizer position.

Discussion of the athletics budget took up most of the meeting. According to student Sean Green, who presented a handout at the meeting, institutional support of the athletics department has increased by 65 percent over the last four years.

“The takeaway message is that the level of institutional support continues to increase over time, while self-support—things like ticket sales—decreases,” he said, citing a fall in the number of student athletes at Portland State from 355 in the 2007–08 academic year to 280 today.

To allow for further discussion, Senator Adam Rahmlow moved to create a committee that would include SFC members and senators.

“Let’s hash out how we’re going to handle this thing,” he said.

The goals of the committee will be to review the potential increase in athletics funding and to “officially support the OSA campus organizer position,” according to Rahmlow.

The proposed funding for athletics in 2011–12 amounts to $9.4 million, an increase from last year’s $7.9 million.

“The money going to the Athletics Department is pretty outrageous…we’re not an athletic school,” Senator Jake Fenske said. “We’re not Notre Dame. We need to get our priorities away from athletics.”

Most senators agreed with Fenske, but Aziz stood in support of athletics.

“I would like to see my school excel in every area,” she said. “To me, supporting athletics is not a terribly bad thing.”

Commenting on the creation of the athletics budget, SFC member Aaron Baker said, “The fact that some people don’t like athletics didn’t factor into our decision…We made our decision the same as we did for every other group.”

At one point, Baker said he didn’t feel the meeting or the recommendations being discussed by the Senate gave an adequate debating platform to the SFC.

“What is the substance of the recommendations if we haven’t been able to explain the rationale of our decision?” Baker asked. “As an individual, I’m just going to refuse all of them, even if some of them are perfectly justified.”

Baker later apologized for his comment.

“I felt we were being cheated out of time we could be using to come to a consensus,” he said.

The Senate has until March 15 to make its final recommendations to the SFC. The final 2011–12 budget is due on President Wim nWiewel’s desk by March 28. ?