Opportunities for discussion curtailed; Fair and Equal Access Bill on the agenda tonight
Last-minute changes to the meeting format have shaken up Thursday’s University of Colorado Student Union Legislative Council meeting. The meeting will hear budget proposals from CU’s minor cost centers and bills tabled from last week, like the Fair and Equal Access Bill.
Council President Joe Martinez outlined the change to the budget hearing process in an e-mail sent to cost center directors Wednesday.
“In previous years, if a center didn’t get the budget they wanted, there was an opportunity to get it changed,” said Jon Tsuda, financial director for the Student Organizations Finance Office. “Now the Council is attempting to look at all of budgets at one time, and cost centers won’t have the chance to address the Council directly outside of presentations without a yield from a member.”
Further departing from last year, Tsuda said the finance board would draft a bill encompassing all proposed budgets after the first readings of each, which only the author is allowed to speak on with the Council. Previously, grants for each cost center were drafted individually after hearing the budget presentation at first reading, and then centers were given an opportunity to negotiate with the Council at second reading.
The second reading of the appropriations bill is scheduled for March 15, and according to Martinez, Council members will debate and amend proposed budgets. Presenters may only address concerns raised by the Council at the second reading if given the floor by a Council member.
“While I encourage members to circulate their amendments beforehand, the debate and amendment process is dynamic,” Martinez wrote in the e-mail. “Further, at this point I am not sure what additional information would be provided during a second hearing, as members have been told to ask for additional information directly.”
The late change was unexpected to Radio 1190 budget presenters Mike Flanagan, the station’s general manager, and student manager and junior fine arts major Andrew Coate. However, Coate said the change seemed to him to be a way to address the concerns of a number of inexperienced budget presenters going before the Council this year.
“With all of the crazy business surrounding UCSU this year, with the fairness bill and what not, the change seems to me to be a way to streamline the budget process, get it out of the way, and focus other matters,” Coate said.
The Fair and Equal Access bill and the Election Code bill, both of which were tabled at the Legislative Council’s last meeting, will again be addressed Thursday during the bills’ second reading.
The FEA bill threatens to cut UCSU funding to the UMC, Wardenburg and the Rec center unless fraternities are given the same rates charged to other student groups to use campus facilities. The bill’s introduction created negative response during public comments, with several speakers accusing the Council of holding the campus hostage in favor of fraternities.
Bill co-sponsor and Legislative Council Representative at large Scott McEachron contended that the bill is a move to defend the autonomy of UCSU against administration interference.
“A lot of what we do as an organization, whether or not we have the ability to dictate policy, is a major concern,” McEachron said. “UCSU may not agree with the administration on different issues. We want to make sure that we have the power when we vote to enforce it.”
McEachron further said that he believes it to be unfair that fraternities, which are not officially recognized as a student group by the university, are denied the services granted to other student associations. However, he admitted that the bill was going to be a contentious issue at Thursday’s meeting.
“I pay for certain services on this campus, and currently I am denied those services based on association that 1,000 students have,” McEachron said. “Chris (Kline) and I are working hard to figure out why people don’t like it, what’s going wrong and why student groups are upset. Hopefully, working with that, we can have it passed because obviously as a sponsor I feel it is a justifiable bill and that it is a change that needs to occur.”
When asked if the chancellor’s office had the right to step in if the bill is found to be unjust, McEachron said that UCSU had been granted governing powers over the university cost centers by the regents and that the administration must respect that. He added that, should the bill pass, fraternities would still not be granted use of all campus facilities, nor the full rights of a student group.
“We’re simply gaining the rights inside UCSU, where we have representatives, where we believe that we as a student body have the right to make a decision who is allowed on this campus and who isn’t,” McEachron said.
The Legislative Council will be hearing budgets from Legal Services, the Environmental Center, the Women’s Resource Center, the Student Organizations Finance Office, the Volunteer Clearing House, KVCU 1190, the Cultural Events Board and UCSU Proper. The meeting is at 7 p.m. in UMC 247 and is open to the public.
