Committee to vote on endowment future
If passed, $750,000 endowment would be transferred.
April 24, 2007
The Hearnes Center Committee held a meeting Monday morning to determine how members feel about a proposal to transfer $750,000 to an endowment fund in the Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee.
"The meeting was to address any committee member's concerns," Hearnes Center Committee member Andrew Cafourek said. "We talked about it for about 45 minutes. Then we will have a few days of discussion over the listserv, and then we will make an electronic vote over e-mail. The committee votes to make recommendations to Athletic Director Mike Alden. (Hearnes Center Committee member) Nick Trusty and myself have tried to make meetings with him to discuss the proposal, but he gave us the notion that he will act on the committee's recommendation."
In order to repay the debt acquired from building the Hearnes Center, a student fee was established in 1995.
After the debt was paid, the fee remained active and money continued to accumulate until at least the year 2000.
The committee now uses the money for maintenance purposes including new carpeting and a new water softener.
"Obviously we learned logistically it was pretty much impossible to send a refund to every student," Trusty said.
The committee, comprised of faculty and students, convened Monday to debate a proposal to reallocate 75 percent of the $1 million collected to an endowment fund for the benefit of SFCIC with the remaining 25 percent staying with the committee, Graduate Professional Council representative Alex Moore stated in an e-mail.
Moore voted against reallocating 100 percent of the funds during a previous vote in February that ended in a tie.
"I would like to have seen 100 percent (allocation of funds to SFCIC), but we wanted to reach a compromise with the GPC in order to show student solidarity and to pass the initiative and move ahead with the proposal," Cafourek said.
Cafourek and Trusty have been working with Jason Blunk, former chairman to the Student Fee Review Committee, to move the funds into a 100-year endowment for SFCIC.
"I think setting up an endowment for the SFCIC would be the best," Trusty said. "Every building, every student at some point will be affected by that committee's disbursement."
The committee deals with the allotment of funds to student organizations, faculty and students.
In Monday's meeting, MSA Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays said irrelevant points distracted the committee while debating the proposal.
"There were not a lot of legitimate points at the meeting," Mays said. "Really, some of the committee members were doing everything they could to keep all of the money under their sole control."
The new proposal will be voted on later in the week via e-mail.
The future of the $1 million should be decided upon by Monday.
"I'm very confident," Mays said. "I'm glad this is finally reaching the finish line. We all owe Jason, Nick and Andrew a lot for their dedication and patience in seeing this through."
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