The United States Student Association has received 12 percent of the budget requested for the 2014-2015 year after submitting its budget late.
Athletics Contracts and Finance Committee budgets were due Nov. 22, 2013; USSA submitted its budget Jan. 30, 2014, originally asking for a $24,531 budget.
This is not the first time that USSA submitted its budget late. USSA officers say that the primary reason for that is that the USSA and the ASUO are on different fiscal years.
“We have to coordinate nationally with our budget and that takes time. Budgets usually start happening around winter for most schools so basically we weren’t sure of our budget until our January meeting, which was unfortunate because our budget was due earlier,” said Lamar Wise, the corporate secretary for USSA.
Although USSA’s budget was late, ACFC chair Alyssa Goessler granted USSA a hearing which is within the rules of the ASUO constitution. At the hearing ACFC board member and Sen. Josh Losner made a motion to overturn the chair’s decision to grant USSA a budget hearing. Of the six members of ACFC, five were present. Ronnie Grenier-Hemphil, Evan Roth and Losner all voted to deny USSA a hearing while Goessler and Reid Stender voted against the motion to overturn the decision of the chair.
Two national members of USSA were at the budget hearing, including the vice president and West Coast field organizer.
“It was really unprofessional,” Goessler said. “I wish that we had known earlier so we could have convened earlier to make the decision not in front of their national directors.”
Goessler was unaware of any plans by members of the ACFC to deny USSA a budget hearing until moments before the hearing began. Losner made the motion to overturn the decision of the chair.
“Not funding them would set a precedent that you have to get your things in on time, you have to do things right,” Losner said. “At the end of the day it’s a standard that I have for myself and it’s a standard that as a member of the ACFC I have for those applying for funding.”
From here on out, the USSA plans to work to increase communication between USSA and the University of Oregon. It’s now written into the rules to makes sure that the national chapter checks in with the Oregon chapter.
Funding for USSA was widely discussed during the March 5 senate meeting. ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz recommended that the senate fund USSA while others were concerned about holding different groups to different standards and setting precedents. By the end of the meeting, USSA was funded $3,000 for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
“Now that we’re in the act of punishing groups for not coming in on time. What would you have done if athletics hadn’t come in on time? Are we just cutting groups just because?” Sen. Miles Sisk said at the March 5 senate meeting.
Athletics did submit its budget late, but it was never addressed at its budget hearing, the March 5 senate meeting or in general. The athletics budget was also due Nov. 22 but was emailed to the ASUO accounting coordinator Dec. 19.