If certain members of the Student Senate and General Assembly have their way, the Presenter’s Office will lose nearly half of its budget to fund the fledgling college student councils.
Humanities Sen. Sam Swenson and architecture General Assembly member Aaron Titus submitted a bill Monday that could add a provision to Redbook, the constitution and bylaws of the Associated Students of the University of Utah, guaranteeing the college student councils 18 percent of the ASUU budget. According to the bill, student councils will receive funding based on each college’s enrollment.
“The whole intent is to recreate ASUU,” Swenson said. “I think student councils will be able to spend it more localized.”
In January, the Senate and Assembly gave each college student council $300 to work with. This bill would add $216,000 to the council’s budgets.
ASUU collects $20.06 from each student every semester he or she is enrolled at the U. This money, totalling $1.2 million in next year’s budget, funds numerous ASUU programs, including the tutoring center and courtesy phones. The Presenter’s Office stands to receive $468,000 of next year’s ASUU budget.
But money spent for smaller groups of students will more easily reach the students, Swenson said.
The college student councils consist of the leaders of each student advisory committee within a college, the delegates to the Assembly and each college’s senator. The student councils do not have a real function without money, according to Swenson.
“College student councils need to legitimize themselves,” Swenson said.
Swenson hopes this legislation will make the student councils able to be more involved politically with ASUU if they have access to money.
The bill plans to get money for the student councils from the Presenter’s Office budget, which receives 39 percent of ASUU’s yearly funds. Cutting the office down to 20 percent of ASUU’s budget would leave only $240,000 for its programs.
The Presenter’s Office holds 75 to 100 events every year, ranging from poetry readings to large ticketed events. According to Jenny Thomas, the Presenter’s Office executive director, attendance at all of these events combined totaled 28,000 students.
Although much of the Presenter’s Office budget goes to programming, $30,000 goes to compensate students who work in the office, and another $20,000 goes to what the office calls “professional development,” most of which sends students to conferences and workshops to help them learn to do their jobs better. The office also has two full-time staff members who earn nearly $100,000 between them.
“The whole issue came out because of K-UTE,” Swenson said. “Why does K-UTE fall under scrutiny? No one blinks at the Presenter’s Office.”
The Assembly recently passed a bill to cut the funding of K-UTE AM 1620, the student radio station, which was guaranteed 2 percent of ASUU’s budget. The Senate tabled the same bill last month and will discuss it again during their next meeting.
Swenson calls the bill cutting the Presenter’s Office a “head turning bill,” and hopes it will cause students leaders to question ASUU policies.
“In my experience in the Senate, things don’t get questioned until they’re on the table,” Swenson said. “That’s the reason we’re bringing it up formally.”
Swenson and Titus also hope the bill will show the newly elected representatives and senators what they can do. The bill is slated for debate April 18 in the Senate and April 23 in the Assembly. Those elected to seats in the legislative bodies for next year will attend these meetings.
“This will be an excellent way to show them ‘look, you can do this,'” Titus said.
The Senate and Assembly have both reviewed many financial bills recently. Both branches recently passed a bill that guarantees 11 percent of ASUU’s budget to the Executive Cabinet operating funds, and another 11 percent to student groups. The Assembly contingency fund also automatically receives 5 percent of the ASUU budget.
The bill also cut the Senate contingency fund from 4 percent to 3 percent, which the proposed bill will replace if passed.
A bill clarifying and increasing Senate compensation also passed through both bodies last month. Instead of receiving $15 per meeting, Senators now receive $20 per required meeting, and no longer have a limit to how much compensation they can receive per semester.