ASUSU allocates funds for club sports and remodels
The ASUSU Executive Council tentatively passed bills allocating $6,000 toward club sport expenses and $3,867 toward office renovations at its regular meeting Tuesday.
One bill allocates $5,000 to the USU hockey team, which will be used to cover expenses for the team’s travel to the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division-II Tournament held during March in Fort Myers, Fla. The total cost for the team to attend the tournament is approximately $35,000 said Ryan Baylis, Athletics vice president and the bill’s sponsor.
“This is a huge thing for USU and great for recruiting new hockey players,” he said. “If the team can recruit even just three new out-of-state players because it went to nationals, that’s about $56,000 in tuition to USU over two years, which is great return on investment.”
The same bill will also allocate $1,000 to the USU swim team to cover travel expenses to the U.S. Masters Swimming Nationals held in April in North Carolina. The total cost of team attendance is about $7,500, Baylis said.
Both teams have already collected approximately $18,600, and — after ASUSU’s contribution — will have about $19,000 left to raise, he said.
The Executive Council also passed a bill allocating $3,867 toward the renovation of offices for three new graduate student government position.
The current Graduate Student Senate offices are being converted into offices for the Student Sustainability Council. The Sustainability Council’s offices are currently spread over three different locations. The move will consolidate these offices into one space, said Tanner Wright, Academic Senate president and the bill’s sponsor.
The graduate student offices are being moved to reflect the restructuring of the Graduate Student Senate, Wright said. The Graduate Student Senate was dissolved earlier this semester and will be incorporated into the academic senate.
Graduate and undergraduate students will now be represented by one senator from their respective colleges. Graduate students will also be represented by three new offices: graduate studies senator, graduate director of research, and graduate director of campus affairs. The $3,867 will go toward building offices for these three positions.
“It’s just more convenient to keep all members of the Academic Senate in one place,” Wright said.
These renovations will take place as part of a larger renovation of the Academic Senate offices.These offices were renovated earlier this semester with funds donated from James Morales, vice president for student services, who donated $14,500 to the project. Eric Olsen, associate vice president for student services, also donated $2,500, Wright said.
The council will make a final decision regarding these bills at its meeting next week.
The funds for these bills will be taken from the Capital and Support Fund, which accumulates money not spent during the previous fiscal year. The funds will not be allocated from this year’s student fees.
“(The Capital and Support committee) feels pretty comfortable about these bills,” said Kirsten Frank, ASUSU executive vice president.
The Capital and Support Fund has been used earlier this year to finance $1,500 for new ping pong and foosball tables for the Taggart Student Center. $3,500 from this fund has also been used to finance the Aggies Giving Service online tracking system for recording volunteer hours, said Linda Zimmerman, executive director for the Student Involvement and Leadership Center. She said the fund typically contains $54,000 per academic year.
– rouchellebrockman@gmail.com