ASUA's tough year could pave the way for a bright future

Arizona Daily Wildcat The Associated Students of the University of Arizona Senate discuss agenda items during a meeting earlier this year. ASUA succeded in creating a new constitution after the split from the Graduate and Professional Student Council.

Rhonda Wilson, 1996-97 Associated Students president, said the split and the subsequent changes in the government's structure allow next year's government to focus more on the job it is supposed to do and to represent the students.

"It allows for next year to be very successful," Wilson said.

Wilson set a university precedent in February as the first person to run for re-election to the UA's top student body position.

She received enough votes in the February 26-27 primary election to advance to the March 5-6 general election but was defeated in the general election by Undergraduate Senate Chairman Gilbert Davidson, who received 71.85 percent of the votes.

Davidson agreed with Wilson that next year's student government will focus more on student representation.

Davidson said this year's creation of a new constitution preoccupied the ASUA with internal reorganization.

In October, the Graduate and Professional Student Council, which is the representative body for about 7,000 UA graduate and professional students, split from ASUA and became an independent body.

The move came after GPSC members said they were not receiving adequate representation in ASUA and would better serve graduate student concerns as a separate body. As part of the split, GPSC received $62,500 in ASUA funds, three times its operating budget while it was still a part of ASUA.

After the split, ASUA officers created a new structure for their government. It became effective May 1, the inauguration day for the newly elected officers.

ASUA met both apathy and criticism during its year-long attempt to replace its 4-year-old constitution.

The Undergraduate Senate held a two-day constitutional convention in November to get student input on the changed structure. However, the convention drew only 30 students.

Despite the lack of student input, ASUA drafted a new constitution that passed both the Senate and the Central Coordinating Council in February.

While creating bylaws to accompany its constitution, ASUA re-examined the structure of its programs and services, which consists of 13 programs, services and resource centers that ASUA provides for university students.

As the Senate discussed these bylaws throughout the month of April, students involved with ASUA programs and services packed into Senate meetings, voicing outrage over the proposed elimination of their programs.

The future of the Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian Association and the Association of Students with Disabilities caused the most debate among senators and students.

Citing financial concerns, Sens. Lauren Sliger and Chadd Garcia argued at the April 8 Senate meeting that BGALA should function as an ASUA club rather than a body within programs and services.

A week later, they made the same argument about ASD.

ASD's bylaws were not discussed at the April 8 meeting because Mindy McCollum, vice president of programs and services, did not forward the bylaws to the Senate at the recommendation of ASD Director Ann Fowler. In a letter to McCollum, Fowler said the organization was "unproductive."

Programs and services receive a line-item budget from ASUA each year, while clubs and organizations apply for funding on a case-by-case basis through the ASUA Appropriations Board.

Sliger said neither ASD nor BGALA should receive line-item funding from ASUA for their activities next year. She argued that BGALA provides benefits to only a limited number of students and ASD is not active enough to justify funding the organization as a program and service.

Sliger and Garcia voted against approving BGALA as a program and service. Their votes were not enough to eliminate the program, which passed at the April 9 Senate meeting 5-2.

A week later, the Senate cut ASD from ASUA's programs and services by a 5-3 vote. The decision, however, only lasted a week.

At the Senate's April 30 meeting, disabled students staged a protest march against the Senate's vote to cut ASD from programs and services.

The march and Sen. J.J. Rico's last-minute decision to give ASD a second chance caused another vote that ended in a unanimous decision to reinstate ASD into the new constitution.

The addition of a sunset clause in ASD's bylaws factored into the Senate's sudden change of heart. The sunset clause states that ASD will be reviewed by the Senate at the end of the fall semester to determine its effectiveness.

The 300 clubs and organizations that receive funding each year from ASUA also affected by the GPSC split.

At the beginning of each academic year, ASUA gives the Student Recreation Center a lump sum of money to allocate to sport clubs. This year the Rec Center received $10,000 from ASUA, down $5,000 from last year.

In February, Erin Russell, vice president for clubs and organizations, announced that the 32 sports clubs must apply for funding through the ASUA Appropriations Board next year, following the same process as non-sport clubs.

Many sport clubs opposed Russell's decision because they cannot receive travel funds from the Appropriations Board as they did from the Rec Center.

Russell said the GPSC split, which took $62,500 away from ASUA, forced her to re-allocate the club funding.

Despite the change, Russell said all clubs will have a fair chance at receiving funding next year.

While there were many structural changes this year, ASUA still provided students with its biggest annual event in April.

Spring Fling, a four-day student-run carnival on the UA Mall, attracted about 28,000 people. Spring Fling organizers have been criticized for their failure to organize a money-making event for the past seven years.

This year was no exception because rainy weather kept attendance down and ASUA was unable to turn a profit.

On the other end of the financial spectrum, 103 clubs and organizations generated about $73,000 from the food, game and entertainment booths they operated during the carnival.