Controversy arose when the Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College discussed the allocation of a large amount of money for next year’s student government at the May 10 meeting.
Noah Hughes
The Broadside
Controversy arose when the Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College discussed the allocation of a large amount of money for next year’s student government at the May 10 meeting.
Matthew Coito, ASCOCC clubs coordinator, believed the $500 currently allocated to clubs for next year was too low, and wanted to raise the amount to $1,000. Financial Coordinator Michael Biermann objected, pointing out there were many things the council wanted to do at the beginning of the year that weren’t in their budget since a lot of the money was already tied up in clubs. Biermann proposed to leave this money unallocated so it could be used by next year’s council for more productive pursuits, such as campus health-care. The council agreed to meet in the near future to finalize the budget.
“The reality is that things are never going to happen if we keep over-allocating things that never get spent,” said Biermann. “It’s like the lottery: you don’t have a chance to win if you don’t buy a ticket.”
In addition, the council voted on a large number of funds requests.
The requests included:
The Aero-Robotics club was approved for $736 in additional funds to build more remote aircraft that use video images for mapping.
The Jefferson County Cultural Enrichment Club was approved to use half their remaining budget, $250 for food provisions and registration for a Relay for Life event.
The Chess Club was approved for $26.94 to purchase three basic chess sets.
The Culinary program was reimbursed $3,061, due to a successful job at the info fair, according to Brandi Jordan, ASCOCC outreach coordinator.
The Otaku Club was approved $150 for bowling, $200 to attend a Japanese tea garden in Portland and $96 to provide club members with access to an online anime collection.
The Oregon Leadership Institute made a request for $1,373.85 in order to feed up to 100 people on graduation day. With only $85 left in their budget, this would go significantly over what they normally had access to, and they had already been given $2,000 more than their budget this year, according to Kelly Huskey, ASCOCC branch campus coordinator. Matthew Coito raised concern over OLI’s lack of participation. “I think we’ve already helped them out more than what we normally do for other clubs, and I don’t see a lot of participation by them around campus,” said Coito.
Club Sports made a request of $5,300 over their $3,000 budget for a number of sporting events and activities. The council abstained from making a decision until Club Sports Coordinator Bill Douglass could provide more information about their involvement on campus, according to Biermann.
“I would be happy with Bill writing up a proposal that says ‘this is how much the events are costing, this is how much we’re charging and this is what happens to the money we take in’,” said Biermann. “I just want to know where the money is going.”
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