The University of Oregon Board of Trustees had  a hefty agenda at its September 11 public meeting.

One notable change since its June meeting, is Gottfredson’s absence which hasn’t gone unnoticed. Interim President Scott Coltrane should be prepared for the long haul, according to Board Chair Chuck Lillis, who emphasized that recruiting a new president will be a long process.

“We have to search until we get the candidate that we want,” said Lillis. “Hunt until you’e happy with who you’re going to get.”

That hunting will be the task of the presidential factors committee charged with assuring the success of the president. Lillis indicated the importance of having a small committee actively recruiting as some presidential candidates may be unable to publicly participate. The selection topic drew criticism and discussion from members of the board and audience.

During the public forum groups such the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation expressed interest in helping to select presidential candidates. Board member and TV journalist Ann Curry asked if the board intended to include such student voices.

“Should we make space for any of these groups that we’ve heard from?” Curry said. “Especially given their contribution to the university.”

Lillis insisted that the board will ultimately approve candidates and that there will be broad representation from across the university. Members of the committee have not been officially selected, but a potential list of members was released during the meeting.

Another heavy topic was potential revision to the student conduct code.

UO Law School professor, John E. Bonine, made an impassioned statement regarding potential changes to the student conduct code.

18 minutes before the meeting began, Bonine discovered a proposed shift that would remove “the University Senate and the President entirely from the process of adopting a Student Conduct Code,” Bonine said during the public forum.

The University of Oregon Board of Trustees met this week for what President Michael Gottfredson called the last of the first meetings of the board. The Board of Trustees is the UO’s new independent governing board made after Governor John Kitzhaber signed Senate Bill 270 allowing the University of Oregon to leave the Oregon University System.

The UO will be leaving the OUS July of 2014 in order to, as Gottfredson said,  provide the highest quality education as broadly and accessibly as possible.

In preparation for leaving the OUS, the board is adopting all applicable OUS rules, then gradually making changes and improvements over time. According to Vice President of Finance and Administration Jamie Moffitt, the number of potential changes are around 600 and growing, Board Chair Chuck Lillis said that at least 16 of those are specifically related to parking.

In the meeting Board member Ann Curry asked if the University of Oregon is financially better off with outside of the OUS. Moffitt, who spoke to the board at length about several aspect of the budget, confirmed that the University was in significantly better financial shape leaving the OUS.

The projected operating revenue for 2014 totals $886,064,055 and $905,035,222 for 2015.The projected operating budget expenditures for 2014 totals $866,184232 and $901,288,040 for 2015. Moffitt divided funds into E&G funds like tuition and other funds like gifts that are more restricted or go to a specific program. Although leaving the OUS will help the University of Oregon financially, Moffitt discussed potential issues with revenue and expenditure in the future.

“Our annual growth rate on expenditures is 4 percent and our annual growth rate on revenue is 2 percent,” Moffitt said. “This year the expenditure is growing faster than revenue but since this year we have a cushion we can cover it. But going forward we’ll need to know that expenditures are going down or that revenue is up.”

Contract negotiation with the Graduate Teaching Fellow Federation was addressed multiple times during the meeting Thursday. Shawna Meechan described the GTFF’s current frustrations with the bargaining process and asked that the Board of Trustees have final say on the GTFF contract negotiations. Board of Trustee member Kurt Willcox criticized the lack of communication about labor disputes and bargaining. Willcox said that he was previously denied the opportunity to be briefed on the GTFF bargaining. Both Willcox and the GTFs addressed that in the past few weeks at least six GTFs wrote to the Board of Trustees and the board did not receive those correspondents.

“I’m not asking that we get a report after every session, I’m just saying that we need to be informed of employment matters,” Willcox said. “I’m fine leaving responsibility in the hands of the president but there has to be some negotiation where the board is informed.”

Others asserted that board members already have the right to be involved. Lillis said that the board recently hired a secretary, who could handle similar ‘administrative glitches’.

After much discussion the board approved an amendment that some members of the board called redundant to Section 3.6.1 of the Board of Trustees Policy on Retention and Delegation of authority. Section 3.6 specifically deals with University Personnel, adding:

“Upon request by the chair of the board or a majority of the trustees the president will provide the board with requested information regarding personnel and employment matters, including labor relations and approval of collective bargaining agreements.”

On Friday, Gottfredson addressed the issue of sexual assault at the University of Oregon, without mentioning any specific instances. Gottfredson repeated the university’s commitment to student safety, transparency and following the law.

“This issue has drawn very strong feelings on our campus over concern. For me anger, deep anger… Sadness as we reflect on a circumstance that on our campus there are students who do not feel safe, which I believe is a completely unacceptable circumstance.” Gottfredson said.  “It’s an issue that’s profoundly troubling and one that even though we’ve been giving increased attention and programing to our efforts are inadequate.”

Gottfredson pointed to the many steps the university plans to take including the external review panel on sexual misconduct prevention and collaboration with institutions around the country.

“We’re going to lean into this,” Gottfredson said. “We’re going to lean into this as strongly as we know how.”

Gottfredson likened the meeting to a commencement, marking the graduation from a board in transition to a board that has graduated to governing the University of Oregon.The next meetings of the University of Oregon Board of Trustees will take place September 11 and 12 and was described by Gottfredson as a strategic planning session.

The ASUO Constitution Court has declared the funding of $45,000 to OSPIRG violates ASUO rules. In its decision the court directs officers of the Senate and Executive to recover the funds given to the Climate Justice League for OSPIRG.

UO student Jacob ‘Jake’ Gram filed a motion for clarification to the Constitution Court May 28 immediately after the ASUO Senate gave $45,000 to OSPIRG to pay expenses previously incurred by OSPIRG.

Under senate rule 12.2(I), “At no time may incidental fee monies be donated to a charitable cause.”

The Constitution Court considers OSPIRG a charitable organization for the purpose of the senate rules.

The ruling stated that an outlay of incidental fee monies by the Senate is a donation when the student body receives nothing in return.

The opinion, written by Associate Justice Chaney, joined by Associate Justice Huegel and Associate Justice Bush states that the student body receives nothing in return of the $45,000 payment, therefore making the money a donation.

Chief Justice Allison Apana dissented without opinion.

The decision also referenced Senator Andrew Lubash’s motion for clarification. In the motion Lubash said that the decision could jeopardize other student programs and upset several decades of precedent.

The decision states that the senate can continue to fund 501(c)3 nonprofits but as transactions and not donations.

Constitution Court Ruling

The ASUO Constitution Court voted to grant an injunction on the $45,000 allocated to OSPIRG by the ASUO Senate.

UO student Jake Gram filed a petition for review May 28 after the senate voted to fund OSPIRG $45,000 through the Climate Justice League. The senate re-voted to fund OSPIRG a week later.  The court is currently on summer recess until August 11, however the court ruled Monday to grant Gram’s request for an injunction. Suspending OSPIRG, the Climate Justice League and any other parties from spending any of the allocated funds pending the release of the court’s decision on the petition for review.

OSPIRG Chair Hannah Picknell said that OSPIRG has not yet spent the money allocated by the ASUO Senate and she hopes that the issue is resolved soon.

ASUO Senator Andrew Lubash filed a motion for clarification with the court in favor of clarifying that the senate acted appropriately and dismissing injunction request.

“Given the exigent circumstances and the time sensitive nature of the Motion for Clarification and the Injunction, I will be pulling the Court out of recess on Monday to meet regarding both petitions,” Constitution Court Chief Justice Allison Apana said. “After weighing heavily the interests of all students involved and those whom these petitions may affect, I have decided that it is in the best interest for everyone involved to have these petitions heard and decided upon by the Court immediately.”

Apana said that the Court met Monday and that an opinion will be released in the next few days addressing both the petition for review and the motion for clarification.

Injunction request

Amicus Brief

Students walking down 13th Street past the quad are greeted by a large drop-clothe canvas, on which text from University of Oregon campus crime alerts frame a large set of handprints.

The canvas explores the culture surrounding sexual assault through campus crime alerts. The installation prints text from 15 to 20 sexual assault related campus crime alerts.

‘These hands, my words’ is an art installation created by UO Design for America.

Design for America’s UO chapter started off the year focusing on illiteracy for its studio project. Halfway through winter term Design for America’s project changed to sexual assault.

“It shocked us that we’re a campus that’s statistically not very safe,” UO Design for America member Sean Danaher said.

“You get campus crime alerts that are painful to read,” UO Design for America member Sam Tucker said. “But once you see it, you forget about it and dismiss it.”

The installation takes campus crime alerts off the computer screen to a tangible piece students can touch. Students dip their hands in teal paint, the color of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and add their handprints to the installation. Participants can also write down answers to what ‘these hands’ do and take portraits with the installation.

“We wanted to bridge the digital divide and see what happens when they’re on campus,” Danaher said. “We’re curious what role design and art can have. We realize this isn’t going to solve the problem, but it might help people to talk about it in a different way.”

In the future, the portraits and student responses will be added to a website and offered to administration.

ASUO Senate voted for the second time to fund OSPIRG $45,000.

Senate had to vote again because the special request was not made 48 hours prior to the meeting, as the rules stipulate.

Several former members of the ASUO spoke against granting the surplus funds to OSPIRG, including former Vice President Greg Mills, former Senator Taylor Allison and former Senator Josh Losner.

Mills said in the meeting that he supports the work that OSPIRG does on campus, but disagreed with Senate’s decision to fund OSPIRG.

“We should not be allocating our mandatory student dollars for professional advocacy that many students disagree with,” Mills said.

Allison echoed Mills’ sentiments and asked Senate to think of other groups that didn’t receive increases during the PFC budget season and will rely on surplus for funding.

I would ask you to seriously consider this request,” Allison said. “And the things you won’t be able to do if you’re $45,000 limited because you gave money to lobbyists.”

Losner said that as a former Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee member, he also voted against funding OSPIRG.

Many current senators continued support for OSPIRG.

“I want to reiterate that a lot of the work OSPIRG does is on campus and getting students involved on campus,” Senator Morales-O’Connor said. “I think anything that goes to students getting more involved in the community is really great and I’m for it.”

Rebecca Rhodes was voted Senate President at the same meeting, replacing former Senate President Matthew Miyamoto. Initially Senators Rhodes, Yelin Oh and Miles Sisk were running for president – Sisk announced his withdrawal from the senate presidential race during his candidate statement in support of Rhodes. During his statement, Sisk asked Senate to forget the elections and do its job.

“There is no Mighty Oregon, there is no Ducks Like You, there is only the ASUO,” Sisk said.

Past and future elections were heavily discussed during the meeting. Candidates were asked directly if they planned to run for office again in the next election, and if they would be willing to resign from the senate presidency in order to run for office. Rhodes said she was not planning to run, Oh’s answer was less clear.

“If the opportunity came about, I’d consider it,” Oh said. “But it wouldn’t change how I am or vote as a senator.”

Rhodes and Oh left the room for the vote, which took place via paper ballot. Rhodes won in a 10-8-1 vote, meaning that ten voted for Rhodes, eight voted for Oh and one senator abstained from voting.

According to Oh, there are no hard feelings between she and Rhodes and the two were going to “dollar beers” after the meeting.

Spring term has not been a lame duck session for the ASUO. Since the recent elections of both a new senate and new executive, members of the newly formed ASUO have been hard at work.

The ASUO president and vice presidents have hired the 2014-2105 ASUO executive staff. The complete list is available on the ASUO’s newly redesigned website.

Wednesday, May 27 marked the first meeting of the newly elected ASUO senate. The new senators made several standing rules.

According to section 2.3 of the ASUO constitution standing rules can be adopted to supersede Robert’s Rules of Order, which the senate uses to conduct its meetings. Standing rules can only be adopted by a 2/3 vote and can only be suspended, amended or rescinded by a 2/3 vote.

Senators who break a standing rule are reprimanded.

The senate voted unanimously to ban the use of social media and cellphones during senate meetings, except in cases of a family emergency. The standing rule addresses previous issues with senators using social media during meetings, specifically when groups are presenting.

In a less unanimous vote, the senate created a standing rule to only fund up to 50 percent of conferences and only if the special request is made at least two weeks before a said conference.

The complete list of standing rules will be posted on the ASUO website, as stipulated in the ASUO constitution.

The current senate also appointed seven members to the ASUO summer senate. Summer senate meets once every other week and each senator receives a $75 stipend. Summer senate is only allowed to allocate $5,000 worth of surplus, it is also responsible for creating the rules for fall to be approved by the ASUO constitution court. Senators Dylan Haupt, Samantha Cohen, Joshua Seligsohn, Matt Maher, Rebecca Rhodes, Yelin Oh and Miles Sisk will mke up the ASUO summer senate.

The Elections Reform Working Group assembled and met twice during spring term. The working group will meet again in the fall and further discuss potential changes to the ASUO elections process.

Ideas that the working group will be discussing include: The possibility of having a runoff election, involving conflict resolution services in the campaigns, possibly an administrative representative to help consult with the Constitution Court and Elections Board, potential finance limits and more. These topics will be explored further by the working group, but there will be much more discussion before any concrete changes are made.

The last meeting of the current senate will take place Wednesday, June 4 and will resume again in the fall.

Live coverage of Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting:

Senate Agenda

New ASUO Vice Presidents Patrick Kindred and Tran Dinh took office May 23 after the Ducks Like You executive victory. Since assuming office, the executive team hired staff, went to a leadership conference in Washington D.C. and got involved with on-campus issues.

Patrick Kindred

What do you want to do with the ASUO?

“I feel like a lot of the students don’t know that the ASUO exists and they don’t know what its purpose is. It was the same thing for me as a foster youth. I had a case worker, I had a lawyer, I had a judge, I had all these different people in my life, but I never was really in a lot of contact with them and these were supposed to be the people advocating for different things going on in my life. So as an ASUO official, I would like to make the ASUO more accessible, which is going to deal a lot more media relations.”

What are you excited for next year?

“I’m excited to see if we can really make some change. Because I’ve definitely heard that it’s really hard to make change and after the first term you start trying to fight battles that you feel like you can win as oppose to what you’re most ambitious about. I would like to change that.”

Mighty Oregon is mostly the senate and Ducks Like You is mostly the executive. I would like to completely destroy that image. People are saying that the executive and senate can’t get along?

“I would like us to be kumbaya-ing by the end and for everyone to be happy. I think Mighty Oregon and Ducks Like You both ran with the idea of, ‘How can we better help these students?’ I think that’s important. Don’t emphasize the campaign you ran under, but emphasize what you’re trying to do, and that’s better help for students … Coming together as senate and executive staff should be the first thing we do because that is our job.”

Tran Dinh

Why did you decide to run for office?

“I decided to run for office because I truly believe in Beatriz. She has been a great resource for me and many others from the time we’ve known each other. I believe that I can assist or be a part of that change. At first I was a little bit hesitant because as an international student I didn’t know if I had a place in the ASUO.  I think historically it’s been a bit exclusive, but I believed that with Beatriz and the management team supporting us that the ASUO can be more open.”

How has the learning curve been for your first week in office?

“There are a lot of details and specificities that we have to get acquainted with. Azia and Greg have been great resources. Patrick and I have met with them several times and they gave us the run down of being vice president. I had my first senate meeting yesterday — that was really fun. … I just think it’s going to be a learning process for all of us. We have a lot of fresh faces and people who have never been in the ASUO before. It’s going to be a great year, but we also want to be open to learning and changing things while being compliant to the (ASUO constiution).”

The Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group, more commonly known as OSPIRG, received $45,ooo at Wednesday’s ASUO Senate meeting. Within hours of the the motion passing Jacob ‘Jake’ Gram challenged the decision.

The Climate Justice League sponsored the request by OSPIRG, which cannot request it’s own funds until it is officially recognized. The funds will be used to pay dues for the UO’s chapter to OSPIRG, specifically the personnel costs for the 2013-2014 program. OSPIRG was defunded in 2012 and has struggled to find funding ever since.

Immediately after the ASUO Senate gave $45,000 from surplus to OSPIRG a petition for review, more commonly referred to as a grievance or complaint, was filed with the ASUO Constitution Court. Gram’s petition Gram asks, “Whether the special request by the Climate Justice League, as approved by Senate, violates the prohibition on incidental fees being donated to charitable causes.”

Senate Rule 12.2.1 states that “Incidental fee monies shall not be donated to a charitable cause.” 501(c)(3) organizations are not specifically mentioned in the ASUO Constitution. In the petition Gram said that OSPIRG is a 501(c)(3) organization, “which means people get a charity deduction on their taxes for donating to it, so it should be considered a charitable cause.”

Gram is requesting that the Constitutional Court declare the funding of $45,000 under the CJL to OSPIRG in violation of Senate Rule 12.2.1 and order an immediate injunction to prevent the money from being spent.

The ASUO Constitution Court is currently on summer recess until August 11. Constitution Court Chief Justice Allison Apana said the grievance will be placed on the Constitution Court’s docket until the Court reconvenes in August.

In the petition Gram urged the Court to act fast because the money has not yet been spent by the CJL.

“The sooner the Court rules on this, the less likely any funds will be spent that cannot be gotten back,” Gram said in the petition.

Gram said that the funding of OSPIRG didn’t seem consistent with the ASUO constitution. He has been following the issue on campus and specifically the senate live feed. Gram said he had been turned onto the issue by former ASUO Senator Ben Rudin but that Gram was the primary author.

Current ASUO Senator Andrew Lubash attributes the petition to Rudin.

“This is a new low for Ben Rudin, a former UO student who literally called this grievance a trick up his sleeve,” Lubash said. “The premise of this grievance would mean that the ASUO could not fund critical services like Sexual Assault Support Services, the Daily Emerald, and the Family Center Co-Op, because they share the same 501(c)(3) tax status.”

According to the IRS website  501(c)(3)  organizations are commonly referred to as charitable organizations and generally apply to tax-exempts nonprofits. The Co-Op Family Center, the Daily Emerald and the Sexual Assault Support Services all confirmed that they are 501(c)(3) organizations. The OSPIRG Foundation is listed as a 501(c)(3) on its website.

Follow Alexandra Wallachy on Twitter @wall2wallachy

Climate Justice League WO by Alexandra Wallachy