For more than 40 years, the ASUO has funded numerous university recognized student organizations that are organized under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)3 including, but not limited to, the Daily Emerald, Sexual Assault Support Services, OSPIRG and the Family Center Co-Op.
The ASUO has long recognized that some student programs need to be organized as a formal legal entity in order to best carry out their mission, the university’s mission and to promote the cultural and physical development of students.
The recent decision to allocate funds to OSPIRG is no exception. OSPIRG is a recognized student program with a long history at the UO. It also has high student participation rates and a mission aligned with that of the University’s. OSPIRG is organized under IRC 501(c)3 simply to allow it to pool incidental fee funds from multiple campuses, thereby allowing it to utilize funds with greater efficiency.
The Senate rule cited by the recent grievance is intended to prevent the Senate from allocating incidental fee funds to groups that are not recognized student organizations and have no connection to the university, such as the United Way, the Sierra Club or the National Rifle Association. The rule should not be misconstrued to bar allocations to recognized student organizations simply because of the manner in which they are formally organized.
Indeed, to do so would force ASUO to discontinue allocations to a number of important student programs and imply that ASUO has violated its rules for several decades. Clearly, that is not the intent of the charitable contribution rule.
On May 28th, the ASUO Senate voted unanimously to fund OSPIRG for the services that it has provided to students on campus. The ASUO Senate will continue to work in a bipartisan fashion to ensure that the I-fee will be spent in the best interest of the diverse University of Oregon student body.
We, the undersigned, ask the ASUO Constitution Court to dismiss this grievance.
Sincerely,
Beatriz Gutierrez
ASUO President
Patrick Kindred
ASUO External Vice-President
Tran Dinh
ASUO Internal Vice-President
Yelin Oh
Senate Seat 1: PFC
Quinn Haaga
Senate Seat 2: PFC
Kate Klosno
Senate Seat 3: PFC
Nathan Rousey
Senate Seat 4: EMU Board
Miles Sisk
Senate Seat 6: EMU Board
Andrew Lubash
Senate Seat 7: ACFC
Rebecca Rhodes
Senate Seat 10: DFC
Matt Maher
Senate Seat 11: Economics & Business Studies
Francisco Morales-O’Connor
Senate Seat 12: Undeclared & Language Studies
Samantha Cohen
Senate Seat 13: Education, Family, & Literature Studies
Dylan Haupt
Senate Seat 18: Math, Environmental Studies, & Architecture
Mack Smith
Senate Seat 19: History & Journalism
Abel Cerros
Senate Seat 20: Undeclared & Music Arts
Megan Gleason
ACFC At-Large Representative
Co-Director of Climate Justice League