Associated Students of the University of Wyoming received $628,648 during the last Board of Trustees meeting from the ASUW student reserves prior to a campus wide sweep of funds that happened during the financial crunch.
“I am very relieved that it is finally coming back to the students,” Senator Jordan Blazovich, of the College of Health Sciences, said. “This has been something that, honestly, never should have happened in the first place.”
President of ASUW, Ben Wetzel, said the money was part of reserves from student fees that had been carried over from year to year that were taken as part of a university wide sweep of reserve accounts.
“Over a thousand cash carry-over and reserve accounts on campus, we had approximately 174 million dollars,” Wetzel said. “Over a quarter, almost a third of a year’s operating budget just sitting in accounts.”
However, Wetzel said that the ASUW should be exempt from that campus-wide sweep, as the money in the ASUW reserve was specifically from student fees, not tuition, grants, or block grant from the state.
Working with Vice President of Student Affairs, Sean Blackburn, Wetzel was able to successfully petition the Board of Trustees on Nov. 16 to return the full amount from the central reserve back to ASUW
“I am really happy it went through,” Wetzel said. “We were the first unit on campus to try the new administrative procedure for requests from university reserves.”
Bills that would use this money are already making their way to the Senate floor. Senate Bill #2580 ASUW Support for a Campus Art Plan, looks to spend $60,000 on consultant fees for a proposed campus art plan that seeks to increase awareness about art on campus, commission new pieces of art and create a system to inventory the current art collection.
“While it is great that the money was returned to the students, I think spending it would be a poor choice,” Robert Kemper, a junior mechanical engineering student, said. “It would be better to use this money for future semesters so that student fees can be lower.”
Blazovich said he hopes that on the grand scale, this money will go toward benefiting the student body as a whole. He said to look out for more legislation after winter break, when the committees have been reorganized.
“I think as a whole, it will come to outreaching to students to see what they want to see,” Blazovich said. “Obviously it would be a good idea to see as much of that money to go to student benefits as possible.”
Blazovich said it would still be a good idea to hold onto some of the money so that ASUW has funds in case of something happening in the future where those funds would be needed.
