2008 Woodie Awards
CFA finishes up controversial year
Jenna Gibson
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: News
The Committee for Fees Allocation ended the year with a final allocation of $16,956,916, an increase of $469,282 over last year's fees.
This total did not come easily, and the committee has had its share of controversy during the past few weeks.
The Association for the Students of the University of Nebraska's budget ran into a snag when the committee could not muster a majority for nor against the addition of improved parking passes for ASUN executives.
This resulted in committee members discovering a loophole in bylaws going back to 2002.
The student court sent the vote back to the CFA, and the benefits were approved 4-3.
This addition was passed through the senate as well, giving ASUN vice presidents and the speaker of the senate parking passes closer to the ASUN office in the Nebraska Union.
In the end, the committee was able to allocate a budget increase of only 3.6 to 3.9 percent more than last year. The absolute total isn't completely clear because of increases in staff of benefits that haven't been fully finalized.
"We worked really well together and we had some good debates," said Laura Holman, a junior finance and economics major and CFA member. "I was pretty satisfied with the outcomes of our decisions."
LJ McElravy, CFA chairman and a biochemistry and French major, agreed.
"I'm really proud of everything we got accomplished," he said. "I think we recommended some appropriate allocations."
Holman said if she could give advice to CFA members for next year, she would tell them to get in contact with their fee users as soon as possible once they are divided into subcommittees.
"This year we really worked a lot more at doing things with subcommittees, and that seemed to work really well," she said. "The more you know abut the user and the more time with them, the better."
McElravy's advice for upcoming CFA members is to hang in there, even though it is a lot of work.
"It's a huge mountain to climb and there's a lot of long hours," McElravy said, "but it's very rewarding."
jennagibson@dailynebraskan.com
This total did not come easily, and the committee has had its share of controversy during the past few weeks.
The Association for the Students of the University of Nebraska's budget ran into a snag when the committee could not muster a majority for nor against the addition of improved parking passes for ASUN executives.
This resulted in committee members discovering a loophole in bylaws going back to 2002.
The student court sent the vote back to the CFA, and the benefits were approved 4-3.
This addition was passed through the senate as well, giving ASUN vice presidents and the speaker of the senate parking passes closer to the ASUN office in the Nebraska Union.
In the end, the committee was able to allocate a budget increase of only 3.6 to 3.9 percent more than last year. The absolute total isn't completely clear because of increases in staff of benefits that haven't been fully finalized.
"We worked really well together and we had some good debates," said Laura Holman, a junior finance and economics major and CFA member. "I was pretty satisfied with the outcomes of our decisions."
LJ McElravy, CFA chairman and a biochemistry and French major, agreed.
"I'm really proud of everything we got accomplished," he said. "I think we recommended some appropriate allocations."
Holman said if she could give advice to CFA members for next year, she would tell them to get in contact with their fee users as soon as possible once they are divided into subcommittees.
"This year we really worked a lot more at doing things with subcommittees, and that seemed to work really well," she said. "The more you know abut the user and the more time with them, the better."
McElravy's advice for upcoming CFA members is to hang in there, even though it is a lot of work.
"It's a huge mountain to climb and there's a lot of long hours," McElravy said, "but it's very rewarding."
jennagibson@dailynebraskan.com
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