Stipend shortage resolved

After months of uncertainty surrounding the future of student government stipends, the Student Senate voted Tuesday to lower Student Fee Committee and Senate stipends for the remainder of the year and capped the number of Senate positions that can be filled.

The reduction in stipends was made necessary due to a clerical error in last year’s SFC process. Senator’s monthly stipends have been reduced from $200 to $150 and SFC member’s stipends have been reduced from $600 to $515.

The Senate put forth a friendly amendment to allow unexpected money from any further resignations to be paid toward SFC stipends, up to $550 per student.

‘We’ve known from the beginning that we’re $40,000 short so there’s been an ongoing discussion,’ said Eddie Hallman, ASPSU administrative director.

Last year was the first year the SFC funded senator positions.

When the new line item was entered into the spreadsheet, a calculation error was made and when the SFC held its hearing on the ASPSU budget, the error was compounded, reducing the stipends of all ASPSU stipend positions, not just the line with the original error.

At one point in December, it was hoped that a portion of the error could be rolled over into next year’s budget, so that this year’s students would not take a large pay cut.

However, Lindsay Desrochers, vice president of Finance and Administration, communicated to Johnnie Ozimkowski, SFC chair, that this was not an acceptable solution, according to Hallman. It was also made clear to ASPSU that they had to figure out how stipends would be paid out for the remainder of the school year before anyone would get paid during winter term.

The Senate also voted to cap the number of senators at 19. There are 25 senate seats available. In a typical year, 22 senators are elected and three are appointed by the ASPSU president and approved by the Senate.

The ASPSU president fills vacancies that occur throughout the year. There are currently 16 senators. Since December, six senators have quit or resigned.

It is important for the Senate to have enough people to be a governing body. Quorum is the required number of people needed to legally hold a meeting. This number is usually determined by the size of the body.

‘Oregon open meeting law says you have to have a majority to make quorum and our Senate bylaws states it has to be 13,’ said Daniel Lyons, Senate president pro tempore.

Meeting quorum has been a problem in the past, according to Hallman. He said since the inception of the stipend for senators, many accomplishments have been made, compared to the year before the stipend started when quorum was achieved ‘maybe 10 times.’

Hallman said the resignations over the winter break mostly came from students who felt they were involved in too many activities and didn’t have the time needed to commit to the Senate. Lyons said they also lost a student who took a job in the new rec center.

With the resignation of ASPSU Vice President Azadeh Chitsaz Tuesday, her stipend might be used to raise the pay of SFC students for the month of June, as discussed at the Senate meeting Tuesday.

According to Lyons, this move will have to be discussed further before any more changes are made to the budget.
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