Budgets dominate discussion for new ASUSU council
Members of the 2010-11 ASUSU Executive Council officially met for the first time Tuesday, April 20, spending time discussing the “house rules” for Executive Council meetings as well as reviewing budget recommendations.
“It’s exciting. We have lots of work to do,” ASUSU President Tyler Tolson said.
The previous officers recommended a budget of $837,000, based on the amount brought in by fees from 2008-09. ASUSU adviser Tiffany Evans said the budget is based on one of the 10 “fee receiving units,” such as athletics, buses and Aggie Blue Bikes. The ASUSU budget comes from the activity fee, which represents $30.53 of $402.18 in total student fees, at the 13-credit level of enrollment. Evans said approximately $28.75 of that goes toward ASUSU. This includes compensation for ASUSU officers as well as activity and operating budgets.
“It is important to understand the fees students pay,” Evans said.
Each dollar from a student, in budget planning, is equated to about $30,000 per year. That budget can be supplemented by the Capital and Support Fund as well as what the council considers a “rainy day” fund. The Capital and Support, or C&S, Fund is typically capped at $54,000, with any excess being transferred to the rainy day fund, where it gains interest.
“C&S is money we’re ready to draw on for student initiatives, or whatever comes up,” Tolson said.
However, accessing the C&S Fund involves passing the item of legislation requesting the funds through a committee as well as signatures from both the ASUSU president and adviser.
Between the two funds, there is currently about $130,000, Evans said. The interest accrued gives the council about $4,000-$5,000 more to add to the $837,000 if they so desire.
“Last year’s council chose not to use that in their budget recommendation because they wanted, I think, to be fiscally conservative,” Evans said.
The council will discuss the budget recommendation at next week’s meeting.
The remainder of the meeting focused largely on the structure and guidelines for the meetings themselves. The new council members made only one change to the House Rules, adding a clause to rule 14, which now reads, “Only elected ASUSU advisers, officers and appointed officers may be allowed to sit at the round table, unless otherwise invited.”
They made the change to accommodate special guests, speakers and administrators who may attend meetings.
Other rules include dress code, discussion of items of legislation, who is permitted to speak and when, and singing either the Aggie Fight Song or the Scotsman to open each meeting: it’s a requirement.
They also considered changing the date and time of the weekly Executive Council meeting, which they will discuss next week, pending finalization of class schedules.
The rules can be suspended by a majority vote for any special circumstance that may require a different procedure.
– chelsey.gensel@aggiemail.usu.edu