Student government allocated $17.7 million in student fees for the 2013-14 fiscal year to 15 CU Boulder departments Wednesday and Thursday nights in an annual public discussion that lasted over 12 hours.

The total budget is higher than fiscal year 2012-13 and will result in an estimated increase of $5.50-6.50 in student fees next school year.

Only one department walked away from the hearings with less funding than fiscal year 2012-13. Student Group Funding Board proposed its own cuts and declined 25 percent in funding.

After hours of group decision-making, however, four members of the 18-person Legislative Council voted against the final budget.

Engineering Co-Sen. Daniel Hansen said he was satisfied that the council designated money to areas of maximum benefit to students, but could not vote for the final budget because money was left sitting unused in banks.

“There were several instances where enhancements were granted – they increase student fees – when it would have been far more appropriate to allocate funds from accounts such as fund balances and SOR,” Hansen said of CU’s Supplemental Operational Reserve, money reserved in a bank. “It’s fiscally irresponsible to leave massive sums of money in accounts where the interest does not even match inflation and then ask students to pay more.”

Click above to see the chart larger. (Josh Shettler/CU Independent)

The fee allocations grew by over $3 million from 2012-13 mainly due to Rec Center renovations already underway. A total of $2,915,729 was allocated to the Rec directly from fee money that students approved in the spring of 2011. Additionally, the Rec received $4,468,755 for regular operations and maintenance, $307,106 less than its entire funding from student fees last year. The Rec Center‘s total budget reached $7,384,484.

The other big-ticket item on this and most years’ budgets was the University Memorial Center, which increased in funding by $434,580 to a total of $6,062,930 in student fee dollars.

CU NightRide, a service of the UMC, has reached its capacity and a new vehicle is required to be added every seven years, junior Shane Hedges said of the program that serves thousands of CU students each weekend. Either a Dodge Caravan or hybrid like the proposed Toyota Camry will be added to the NightRide fleet in 2013.

Additionally, the UMC asked and received enhancement funding for an events planner and equipment updates for Friday Night Film Series and Sneak Peeks. Senior Heather Starbuck, a manager of the film series, said she had to turn away an undisclosed Seth Rogen film at the end of February because the film could not be shown using CU’s technology.

Other notable funding allocations and enhancements decided for fiscal year 2013-14:

• Student Legal Services acquired $2,329 more than last year in part for a private investigator, a position the department has never before hired.

• The Environmental Center surpassed $1 million and gained, among other funding, a Sucial Justice Sustainability Coordinator, Family Housing Sustainability Program, graduate student team lead positions for CU Green Labs Program and financial support for SCORE previously provided solely through Xcel.

• CU’s Volunteer Resource Center has grown tremendously in recent years and received praise from student government in the form of a $44,051 increase, to be applied primarily to financial aid for Alternative Breaks.

• Cultural Events Board received $15,000 specifically for “special projects.” The category includes big-name guests like Macklemore, which the board is co-hosting with Program Council and said will cost about two cents per student. The board expects to reach about half of the student body by the time they graduate, the group said in their hearing last Wednesday.

• Over the last year, Off-Campus Housing and Neighborhood Relations has had success with Hill Dialogue Dinners, which seeks common ground between students and permanent residents on the Hill. Off-Campus Housing received $25,299 more than fiscal year 2012-13 for the Hill program and other outreach services like the Turn On Your Light campaign, Ralphie’s List, and party registrations.

• Women’s Resource Center received a small enhancement for student hourly payments and advanced $11,115 to a total student fee allocation of $266,358.

• The GLBTQ Resource Center received funds to offset their annual Transforming Gender Symposium as well as travel costs to attend special retreats like the Creating Change conference in Texas next year.

• The Student Outreach and Retention Center for Equity gained $16,418 for developing outreach programs for minority groups, including tours for Denver metro “target schools,” mentor programs, Chili Pots, Ralphie’s Kids Roundup with the Athletic Department and the Women and Men of Color Leadership Institute.

• The Student Organizations Finance Office acts as a mandatory bank for student groups that operate under the student government. The office received $32,308 more this year to support the CU Student Government Finance Board and its chair and director in addition to continuing emphasis on Cultural Events Board and Distinguished Speakers Board.

• The Student Group Funding Board operates under the Student Organizations Finance Office and provides financial support for student groups that do not exist directly under student government. The board asked for $250,000, down from $300,000 last year, but received $225,000.

• KVCU, or Radio 1190, received $137,204, a $248 raise, after seemingly fighting for any funding at all. A few members of student government circulated a budget proposal early last week that included cutting almost all KVCU funding. The proposal turned into a debacle after being leaked unexpectedly and subsequently distributed to the other departments by student government.

• CU Student Government Proper, the board that pays student government and is comprised of student government and outside members, did not receive the full funding it asked for. Student Body President Brittni Hernandez was adamant in her request for an executive staff payroll of $124,000 to pay people other than the politicians themselves, like communications directors, an elections commissioner, Freshman Council, the appellate court and liaisons. The board instead received $114,000 for executive staff payroll as part of its $508,461 total allocation. The $42,664 increase from last year includes one additional office worker.

• The Distinguished Speakers Board received $130,209, a $10,024 increase, after student representatives debated every other cost center and the clock had struck midnight on Friday morning.

 Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Alison Noon at Alison.noon@colorado.edu.

There wasn’t enough rainbow-colored cake to go around Wednesday morning.

Hundreds of gays and lesbians were recognized as couples under the law at courthouses in Colorado early Wednesday when civil unions became legal in the state for the first time, and hundreds more gathered to help them celebrate.

After the clock struck 12:01 a.m., the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s office issued 48 civil union certificates, according to a news release, and Denver issued over 100.

The Boulder clerk’s office remained open until about 2:15 a.m. and Denver until 3 a.m. for couples eager to take advantage of their rights under the new law.

Colorado’s civil-union couples will be afforded similar legal rights as married couples in Colorado, including transferring property, making medical decisions, adopting children and qualifying for health insurance and survivor benefits. It will also allow couples a legal outline for separating assets in cases of “divorce,” though that term is technically only used in marriages.

Civil unions will not allow couples to file for joint income tax returns, a federal break restricted to married couples.

Speaker of the Colorado House and one of the sponsors of the civil unions bill, Rep. Mark Ferrandino was present throughout the Tuesday proceedings.

After watching a similar civil unions bill die on the House floor last year, Ferrandino and fellow bill sponsors made it a priority in the newly Democrat-controlled chamber in 2013.

Amazing – watching so many friends enter into a civil union tonight and knowing I had a small part in making it happen!! #coleg

— Mark Ferrandino (@MarkFerrandino) May 1, 2013

Colorado Public Radio’s Megan Verlee reported earlier in the evening that Ferrandino and his partner, Greg Wertsch, did not receive a certificate Wednesday because they plan to seek one on Memorial Day.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock performed several of the civil union ceremonies in the first hours of May 1. Local judges and magistrates were also on hand.

El Paso County began issuing certificates at 8 a.m. Wednesday without any fanfare while some Pueblo County officials and advocates plan an 11 a.m. rally on the steps of the county courthouse followed by a mass civil union ceremony. The Boulder clerk’s office opened and was ready to issue more certificates at its normal time Wednesday, 8 a.m., at 1750 33rd St. in Boulder.

Colorado became the eighth state to have civil unions or similar laws after Senate Bill 11 was passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. John Hickenlooper in March. Nine states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Alison Noon at Alison.noon@colorado.edu.

A resolution stating CU Student Government’s support in divesting CU of fossil fuel companies passed first reading Thursday night after much debate at what was the outgoing representatives’ last regular Legislative Council meeting in office.

The resolution would not have any actual, financial effect on the university, but would be presented as a statement from the student government to CU Foundation. The university’s large office for donations and funding, CU Foundation boasts at least 200 staff members on its website and, as of June 30, over $121 million in endowment assets, the funds at hand in divestment.

The action on a statement came two weeks after 65 percent of voters in the spring campus election voiced favor for divestment on a question that is being labeled as “leading” by some Legislative Council members. The ballot measure’s exact wording was:

Do you support a decision by CU and the CU Foundation to remove all university endowment investments from the fossil fuel industry?

Tory Moore a 21-year-old senior voted in favor of divestment, but did not need to hear the wording of the ballot measure again to say that he thinks it was “leading.” Citing the use of the words “fossil fuels,” Moore said that the question was one-sided, but he would have voted in favor of divestment regardless of the question’s language.

Moore said that he is concerned by CU President Bruce Benson’s comment at a town hall meeting last Wednesday disbanding any notion that CU Foundation is in favor of divestment.

“CU has somewhat of a reputation of being a green and sustainable university and I guess, based on the town hall meeting, that doesn’t seem to matter,” Moore said.

Former Rep. Rachelle Yeung echoed that sentiment in council when she argued that the university might not be as much of a leader in sustainability as is generally perceived.

“The administration is not known for making productive steps,” Yeung said. “We need to make the moves if we want to be on the cutting edge of sustainability.”

Opponents of the resolution question the gravity of the 65 percent-of-voters figure. According to the tally on an elections results page, 6,386 people, or about 23 percent of eligible-voting CU Boulder students, answered the divestment question. Of that, 4,145 were in favor.

Former Rep. Alexis Scobie said that, during spring campaigns, one ticket gunned for office alongside the divestment question. Since the tri-executive was won by the actively pro-divest ticket by just 22 votes, the question appears unrepresentative, she said.

Former Rep. Neelah Ali isn’t so sure. If the government was to invalidate the number of people who voted for the resolution, she said, then they should also invalidate the elections of the incoming representatives, who were sworn in after the resolution passed.

“If we accept them to come in today then we should vote yes on this resolution,” Ali said.

Former Sen. David Gillis, a chemical engineering senior, argued Thursday that divestment comes at a hefty cost to certain programs at CU that rely on funding from fossil fuel companies.

“They fund our teaching lab, they fund our program, they fund our building,” Gillis said of his biochemistry program. “Phillips 66 came to our lab on Tuesday and donated $1.6 million.”

Phillips 66 CEO Greg Garland presented the last installment on a $3.5 million Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building commitment, a university news release said, after he urged students to step outside their comfort zones in the workplace.

Gillis was also one of a few Legislative Council members who expressed worry about presenting a statement on getting rid of investments without full facts and figures on the university’s current investments.

Scobie said it was a “scary” thought to make a statement on investing, divesting or reinvesting without knowing specific numbers it could affect.

Michael Fitch, a member of Fossil Free CU, said that investment numbers are not available.

“We don’t have information on these specific stocks or funds they’re invested in because the information is not made public,” Fitch said.

Former Legislative Council Vice President Nate Wallshein said that the student government debate over the university’s current investments sidestepped the real purpose of making the statement.

“It’s an idea that when we’re investing our endowments it’s not just an economic responsibility, it’s a social responsibility,” Wallshein said.

The resolution failed to receive a two-thirds majority on a special order Thursday night, but subsequently received a simple 8-7 majority in regular procedure.

The divestment measure was brought to the spring ballot through the efforts of Fossil Free CU, a group of about 15 students actively engaged in severing the university’s ties to the fossil fuel industry. The seven group members present on Thursday were all high-fives after the resolution skimmed by its first test.

The group testified in favor of the bill and brought up the fact that, hours earlier on Thursday, Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum joined a group of ten U.S. city councils and mayors urging their cities to divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies. Boulder already has a policy in place disallowing investments in stocks, City of Boulder spokesperson Sarah Huntley said, but Mayor Matt Appelbaum sees the move as a leadership opportunity.

Since the new slate of representatives took office after regular agenda items, the divestment resolution will be heard by an entirely new panel of Legislative Council members when it is taken up this Thursday.

Fitch, one of the seven members present last Thursday, was confident in the divestment movement after seeing the resolution pass first reading.

“I am very hopeful for the new Leg Council because they ran on representing the students and the students overwhelmingly supported this,” he said.

Fossil Free CU will host a gathering at the UMC founatins on Monday in the hope of rallying support for divestment and the student government’s resolution. It heads to its next and final reading at the public Legislative Council meeting Thursday in UMC room 427.

“Forty-eight hours before our first day of finals, this will get its second reading,” former Legislative Council President Colin Sorensen said Thursday night.

Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Alison Noon at Alison.noon@colorado.edu.

Twenty-two votes separated the two student government tri-executive tickets at the end of spring elections Thursday night.

Chris Schaefbauer, Ellie Roberts and Marco Dorado of the Unite ticket will take office in the fall, having beat out Inspire’s Alexis Scobie, Logan Schlutz and Colby Schwartz 3,354 to 3,332 votes, a 50-50 percent split.

“I don’t know that CUSG has ever seen an election that’s this close,” Representative-at-Large Scobie said. “The percentage was the exact same.”

Since tabling on campus is the primary source of vote-getting during student elections, Schaefbauer said, the Unite ticket can in part owe its success to longer hours spent behind the plastic partitions.

“At the end of the day we were out longer hours,” he said.

The election was conducted using approval voting, which allowed students to vote for as many or as few candidates as they desired, despite ticket affiliation.

In spite of their big win in the executive, the self-described “progressive ticket,” Unite, claimed just one of five representative-at-large positions with candidate Juedon Kebede. Inspire’s Ashley Prince, Brianna Majewski and David Bretl won three of the at-large seats. Each of the elected candidates won 12 percent of the vote.

The final at-large position was a tie between Inspire’s Joe Putnik and Rosana Rodriguez, each with 2,968 votes.

The tri-executive branch usually includes one designated president and two vice presidents of internal and external affairs. The Unite ticket will explore, for the first time in recent history, an executive of three presidents.

Schaefbauer said the three executive-elects seek equally divided power for the branch that represents campus as a whole.

“All three of those people do an equal amount of work,” Schaefbauer said.

Schaefbauer, Roberts and Dorado expect to work out how to specifically label and delegate their executive power as the election is finalized in coming weeks.

Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Alison Noon at Alison.noon@colorado.edu.

In a move to further pressure Congress to take up White House-proposed gun control measures, President Obama remarked in Denver on Wednesday that action on federally required background checks could come as soon as next week.

The president touted Colorado’s legislature and Gov. John Hickenlooper for taking quick steps following mass violence in Aurora and around the country to, “do something about it.”

“I don’t believe that weapons designed for theaters of war have a place in movie theaters,” Obama said.

Hickenlooper signed two notable bills into law on March 20, requiring universal background checks and a limit on high-capacity magazines in the state.

“I think that Colorado has shown that practical progress is possible,” Obama said.

[Show as slideshow]

After calling background checks a, “common sense proposal,” Obama said that 90 percent of Americans “agree on” universal background checks.

“We’ve got to get Congress to take the next step,” Obama said. “As soon as next week every senator will get to vote on whether or not we should require background checks on anyone who wants to purchase a gun.”

Although background checks are already required to some extent, Obama said that loopholes allow criminals to avoid them.

A bill that would have banned concealed carry handguns from college campuses was killed by sponsor Sen. Rollie Heath because it did not have the votes to pass, Heath said Wednesday afternoon. It was the only Colorado gun bill directly related to campuses.

Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Alison Noon at Alison.noon@colorado.edu.

Gay couples will soon be able to enter into civil unions in the state of Colorado.

The bill on its way to the desk of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who has been outspoken in his support of civil unions, is expected to be signed into law within two weeks, capping a three-year fight over a proposal to grant gay couples rights similar to marriage.

“We are delighted that the state of Colorado has taken this important step toward equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people,” Scarlet Bowen, director of the GLBTQ Resource Center said Wednesday. “Civil Unions still do not confer the 1,138 federal laws that pertain to marriage, but we still have reason to celebrate this important legal victory in Colorado.”

The on-campus center serves about 3,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, faculty, staff and Boulder residents with identity and relationship issues every year, Bowen said.

“The passing of Civil Unions will bolster CU-Boulder’s commitment to provide a working and learning environment that is free of discrimination in all of its forms,” Bowen said.

Sophomore Anna Parma said she believes equality for gay people is generally agreed on in Boulder. Her friends either support gay marriage and civil unions or are not concerned with what they consider people’s private lives. She would like to see the civil unions bill signed by the governor.

“It wouldn’t be a problem to anyone other than if it personally disturbs them for some reason,” Parma said. “I just don’t see why it shouldn’t be okay.”

The Boulder College Democrats are in full support of the civil unions bill.

“This represents an important step forward not only for the state of Colorado, but the entire nation as yet another state has stepped forward and made a strong statement for equal rights,” said Ryan Langhorst, vice president of communications for Boulder College Democrats. “Whether they’re students or graduated, this will allow gay couples in Colorado … to take their relationship a step further.”

Applause erupted in the Capitol as the bill won final passage on a 39-26 House vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats to approve the measure. Several dozen people watching from the House gallery left smiling and hugging, and some wiped away tears of joy.

Colorado’s measure grants gay couples rights similar to marriage, including enhanced inheritance and parental rights. People in civil unions also would have the ability to make medical decisions for their partners.

Once the measure is signed, Colorado will join eight states that have civil unions or similar laws. Nine states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage.

Last year, Democratic Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, a newly elected gay lawmaker, was among the spectators in the House gallery with his children, watching as Republicans used their one-vote majority in the House to prevent the measure from being debated in the waning hours of the session, thus killing the bill.

“I sat with my kids at midnight, wondering what was going to happen the next time we had a tragedy. What would happen if I had to take my kids to the ER and then I was questioned whether or not I was really their dad,” said Ulibarri, one of eight gay Democratic lawmakers serving in the Colorado Legislature.

Civil unions for gay couples became a rallying cry for Democrats who took control of the Colorado House in last year’s elections, and they vowed an early vote on the proposal.

“Elections have consequences,” said Republican Rep. Frank McNulty, the former House speaker.

Democrats now control both chambers of the Legislature, and the party elected Colorado’s first gay House speaker, Mark Ferrandino.

“The people spoke in November, and we are fulfilling a promise we made at the end of last session,” Ferrandino said Tuesday.

The vote marks a dramatic political shift in Colorado, a western state with deep conservative roots that has become more moderate over the past decade. In 1992, Colorado voters approved a ban on municipal antidiscrimination laws to protect gays. Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court said the law, known as Amendment 2, was unconstitutional, but not before some branded Colorado a “hate state.”

And in 2006, voters approved a gay-marriage ban — meaning civil unions are the only option for gay couples in the state for now. That could change with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage bans in the coming months.

Republicans opposed the bill, saying they would’ve liked to see religious exemptions to provide legal protections for those opposed to civil unions.

“I have long-standing concerns about the way in which religion isn’t tolerated by some down here at the state Capitol,” McNulty said. “I continue to have those concerns.”

Democrats contend the Republican suggestions to amend the bill would have opened the door to discrimination. Under the bill, churches are not required to perform civil unions, but Republicans wanted broader protections to include businesses and adoption agencies.

Republicans also argued civil unions were too similar to marriage, and that they would undermine the institution of marriage.

“Civil unions are not marriage. They are something that are separate, and distinct, and lesser, and unequal,” Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman said. “And that really is not good enough. We passed this bill because this is the best we can do.”

When asked, five of the eight gay Democratic lawmakers said after the vote that they would get civil unions. It was a difficult question for Steadman, whose longtime partner, Dave Misner, died of cancer last year.

“Some of us don’t get that opportunity,” Steadman said.

Contributions from the Associated Press included in this report.

Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Alison Noon at Alison.noon@colorado.edu.

Student representatives left their two-day marathon, annual budget session hours after the Buffs took down the No. 19 Ducks Thursday night.

After all of the other students had departed University Memorial Center for the evening and shouts of elated basketball fans were heard outside, student representatives remained in room 247 until the budget was complete.

The CU Student Recreation Center secured $7,384,484 in student-fee funding for the upcoming fiscal year. The total is nearly $3 million more than usual and will be come directly from an increase in student fees that students voted for in the spring of 2011.

Members of the Recreation Board are heard during Thursday night’s budget meeting. (James Bradbury/CU Independent)

The monumental increase, which will pay for a completely renovated Rec Center possibly including rooftop tennis courts, was approved by 70.5 percent of the student body.

When they approved the renovations two years ago, students also accepted an increase in their student fees of $121-125 per semester.

Favorable interest rates have allowed that original estimate to be lowered to $103-105 per semester, Recreation Board said Thursday night. The added fee is still slated to begin next spring.

“The whole thing is: if you don’t get to enjoy it, you shouldn’t be paying for it,” Nan Lu, associate director for business and finance at the Rec Center said after the meeting.

Student government officially approved $2,915,729 for new facilities Thursday night. In a seperate motion, the Rec Center was granted $4,468,755 more for a longstanding bond payment that Lu considers the center’s “old” number.

“Technically, this year we have two budgets,” Lu said. “In 2013 and ‘14 we actually have an overlap, we’ll be paying the last payment on our old bond and we’ll be paying the new payment on the new bond.”

The “old” bond, which is usually the Rec Center’s only request for student fee money, has been pretty consistent since the late 1980s, Lu said. That was the last time the Rec Center underwent expansion.

The “old” bond will be paid off by the end of the next fiscal year, the summer of 2014, in a final payment that is $307,106 less than last year because of refinancing.

“Part of reason we can do the new construction is because the old bond is up,” Lu said.

The other reason, she said, is because of popular student opinion.

“The real reason we can do this new construction is because the students support it,” Lu said. “Students feel the same way we do, that the facility is just too old.”

Engineering Co-Sen. Daniel Hansen was persistent in his view that the adopted budget is not “fiscally responsible” for overlooking possible cost savings as resourceful as he would hope and voted “no” on the funding package in the wee minutes of Friday morning.

Despite calling the budget unsatisfactory, however, Hansen said he wanted the bill to pass and supports, in particular,  the Rec Center funding.

“Seventy percent of students use the Rec Center every week,” Hansen said after the meeting. “They’re the ones who voted for this in the first place.”

Check back for further details and analysis of CU Student Government’s 2013-14 budget in coming days.

Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Alison Noon at Alison.noon@colorado.edu.