ASUM makes changes to budget, constitution

By Jewels Phraner

Published Aug. 21, 2007

With a rewritten constitution, a reorganized board and a new method for funding, the Associated Students of the University of Missouri is working its way out of a slump.

In January 2007, ASUM, the legislative lobbying organization for the four UM system campuses, cancelled its meeting, reaching its lowest point in the recent history of the organization.

"It woke people up," former chairwoman Ashley Warren said. "It was the only way we could have done it. It allowed us to regroup and get back on the right track."

One way it's making improvements is to cut its budget by nearly $100,000.

In previous years, each campus put money toward a central budget used equally by each of the campuses. But MU contributed the majority of this money, giving $138,764.16, while the other three campuses donated $3,000 each. This year, ASUM decided to cut MU's portion of the budget dramatically, with the campus providing $34,500. This $100,000 decrease gives each branch more control over its own money, Dianna Meyers, who was elected chairwoman during ASUM's May meeting, said.

The money that ASUM Columbia isn't contributing will go toward campus activities such as the "lunch with the legislators" program, the annual student showcase at the Capitol in Jefferson City, and toward hiring a graduate assistant, Programming Director Mark Buhrmester said.

"A graduate assistant would add a level of professional leadership," Burhmester said.

Eventually, the organization would like to impose a universal student fee of $1.44 for every student in the UM system for the central budget. Each campus would then have the option to choose to add more to that student fee if they needed money for activities benefiting its individual campus. But this might not happen for several years, if at all.

It would create financial equal representation, Meyers said.

Another drastic change ASUM made last year was to rewrite its constitution.

Warren said there were a lot of contradictions and loopholes in the previous constitution that some people had taken advantage of.

"Things are running 1,000 times smoother now," Meyers said.

ASUM has held three meetings since January's cancelled one.

In addition to rewriting the organization's constitution, the ASUM's board of directors changed from "representative-style to senate-style," Myers said.

Instead of having each campus's student population determine the number of representatives on the board, similar to how a state's population determines the number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives, the board now has three representatives from each campus, like the U.S. Senate, which has two senators from each state.

The reorganization helps the board determine what is good for all four campuses instead of one individual student's campus.

"It makes us ask how legislation will affect all campuses," Meyers said. "ASUM is really a service organization for all four campuses, not just the campus a student represents."