SFC budget presented to ASPSU

The Student Fee Committee presented its completed budget allocation for the 2010–11 academic year to the Student Senate on Tuesday, March 9.

The SFC presented a slideshow reiterating Oregon legislation that governs student fees (ORS 351.070), the SFC’s guiding principles and numbers reflecting the growth of the student fee budget.

The slideshow explained that the committee primarily took three steps to limit the budget. They have placed caps on “travel for department and groups, stipends, and total student groups request.” They “have taken steps to limit the growth of department funded areas,” and also “made arrangements with the university to transition funding in some departments back to the university.”

A seven-year trend within the Oregon University System’s budget shows a large increase to the student fee for PSU and other OUS schools.

SFC Chair Johnnie Ozimkowski said that PSU cannot always be compared to other universities, because it has different needs because of its student population. For example, more money needs to be allocated to Student Legal and Media Services, because the PSU student population uses its services frequently for bankruptcy and family law.

Ozimkowski said the SFC concentrated on practicing “view point neutrality” but also focused on maintaining funding to services that will keep students enrolled.

“The goal [of going to PSU] is to get a degree,” Ozimkowski said.

He said that the SFC asked itself how to accommodate those within the student population who don’t have time to participate with student groups, but who want “to see their money in action.”

A discussion was held after the slideshow was presented regarding the budget. Questions were asked about what money goes into the student fee reserve fund and how expected inflation and enrollment are taken into consideration.

Ozimkowski said last year’s SFC gave the Senate only one day to review the budget, and this year’s SFC is following the bylaws which state that the Senate must have 21 days to review the budget and respond with any recommendations.

 “We came into this year with a challenging situation, but we tried our best…We put a lot of thought into this,” said SFC Member Jil Heimensen.

School of Fine and Performing Arts Senator Patricia Binder said she was concerned about possible disempowerment of student groups.

ASPSU Vice President Ed Hallman said a “robust discussion” needed to occur about the budget on Tuesday night, because the Senate does not plan to meet finals week or during spring break, and the Senate needs to review and respond to the budget by March 30.

Final allocation results are available for student groups to view online at www.sa.pdx.edu/budgets.