ASOSU funds request not made properly

Since last week's revelation of illegal pay raises authorized by the M. Tonga Hopoi administration this past summer, further actions by the administration which contradict the governing statutes of the Associated Students of Oregon State University have come to light.

The Hopoi administration requested additional money from a contingency fund to send 12 individuals to trips to Washington D.C. this spring outside of the regular budget for travel. The request was not initially approved by the House of Representative's Ways and Means Committee — which is against ASOSU statutes — before being sent to the Student Incidental Fees Committee. There are also concerns that the requested money is not actually needed, since the approved travel budget is at around 86 percent of its full amount and has not been exhausted, according to Ways and Means Committee Chairman Douglas Van Bossuyt.

The requested funds, which had been granted by the Student Incidental Fees Committee without the knowledge that it had not been approved by the Ways and Means Committee, were rescinded Monday night during a special meeting of the Student Incidental Fees Committee, according to chairperson Josh Makepeace.

"The SIFC has a pool of money called the contingency fund, this is money that any fee-funded organization can request money of for unforeseen expenses," said Christopher Van Drimmelen, Administration and Logistics Advocate.

President Hopoi did mention a contingency fund request at the Feb. 8, 2012 meeting of the Ways and Means Committee, however this request was not approved by the Ways and Means Committee.

"The House Ways and Means Committee did not hear this request prior to it going to the SIFC," Van Drimmelen said.

The budgeting board of an organization must first approve contingency requests, which according to ASOSU statutes is the Ways and Means Committee. Other organizations have different budgeting boards; for example, Student Media must have its requests approved by the Educational Activities board.

"The constitution and statutes clearly dictate that the house and congress deal with fiduciary matters," said Drew Hatlen, ASOSU Speaker of the House. "The statutes clearly dictate that Ways and Means is ASOSU's major budgeting board."

However, Hopoi contends that the Student Incidental Fees Committee is the budgeting board of ASOSU.

"The power of budgetary authority has been delineated from my position as ASOSU to SIFC; I approved through my cabinet for government affairs team to go request from SIFC," Hopoi said. "If we go out of the current allotted budget from last year, that is the only way we go to Ways and Means, is if we intend to go over the budget.  For us to go to SIFC for it, that is a proactive way for us to stay in the budget for it."

The requested funds were to be used to send 12 students, four from ASOSU and eight others from the student body at large to the United States Student Association Legislative Convention in Washington D.C. The United States Students Association is a group that acts as an umbrella lobbying organization for student governments, much the same way that Oregon Students Association does at the state level. ASOSU has not been a member of the United States Student Association for many years now.

However, according to Van Drimmelen, ASOSU has not yet used up all its allotted money for travel.

"Around 86 percent of the travel budget is still unused. It would be premature to draw somewhere on the order of $11,000 of SIFC contingency funds when we still have money of our own," Van Drimmelen said.

Hatlen agrees that there is no need for a contingency request at this time.

"There is a line item for travel expenses and that with the lack of traveling to OSA this summer, there is a large portion of the travel budget left, more than enough to cover this trip to Legcon," Hatlen said. "And if they felt they needed another trip in the spring, they could have asked the House Ways and Means Committee for a contingency request because there is plenty of money there."

However, it is clear is that there is a misunderstanding of ASOSU statutes and Student Incidental Fees Committee bylaws.

"Statutes were clearly violated at ASOSU, and SIFC bylaws were clearly violated," Van Bossuyt said. "Now, if the individuals involved had read the statutes, that would have been clear to ASOSU, and considering the president sits as a member of SIFC, I would have expected her to read the bylaws of that organization."

Don Iler, managing editor

737-2232, managing@dailybarometer.com

On Twitter: @doniler