Cutter Courts Town Hall Meeting

ASWU will be sponsoring a Town Hall meeting for students to come and hear information and ask questions about the Cutter Courts Lights proposal. This will take place in the HUB Multipurpose room on November 30th from 11:45AM - 12:45PM. This is a great place for you to get your questions answered and propose suggestions to ASWU.

Proposal Description

ASWU would like to inform you about the possibility of installing lights around the Cutter Courts adjacent to Graves Gym. Diagrams of the proposed lights and layout are available at www.whitworthaswu.blogspot.com and are attached to this email. This is a similar lighting system to the one used by Eastern Washington University. If the proposal is accepted, the estimated installation time would be 9 weeks (winter construction is not an issue). The vote for this proposal will take place on Thursday, December 2^nd 8:00AM-10:00PM.

Because of the unexpectedly large student body this year, ASWU has a large amount of currently unbudgeted funds totaling $58,000. This is an abnormally large surplus and will likely not occur again. This surplus is available for student programming requisitions. This particular proposal for the Cutter Courts lights will cost $40,000.

• If accepted, ASWU would be left with $18,000 of unbudgeted funds. Of this amount, $13,000 would be accessible for additional requisitions this year. The other $5,000 would be kept in a special account for use in emergency (per ASWU Financial Standard Operating Procedures [FSOPs]https://www.whitworth.edu/Students/ASWU/GeneralInformation/PDF/FinancialInformation/FSOPS.pdf ).
• If this proposal is not accepted, $53,000 would remain available for standard student programming requisitions this year, and $5,000 would be kept in emergency reserve. Currently there are no proposals for how this money would be used, but ASWU would consider any proposals presented by ASWU members and students alike (assuming the proposals adhere to the FSOPs). There are endless possibilities for how these funds could be allocated

Benefits

If the proposal is passed, potential benefits could include:

• Night-time recreation such as basketball or tennis
• Dorm programs
• Summer programs
• Possibility of an ice rink
• Liability clearance is pending
• This is not contingent on installation of lights. The installation of an ice rink could proceed whether or not this vote passes but would be limited to winter day-light hours
• Installation of the rink would be free, and potential further costs (i.e. maintenance) would not be excessive and would be covered by the University

Cost

Breakdown (high-end estimates):

• Equipment and installation: $35,000
• Design: $4,000
• Permits: $1,000
• Total: $40,000

Logistics

Functionality:

• Lights can be turned on individually by students
• Lights are equipped with timers to minimize energy consumption
• Energy and maintenance costs would be included in University budgeting

Further information and updates will be available on the ASWU blog: www.whitworthaswu.blogspot.com.

Questions and concerns can be addressed to Kyle Krustangel (kkrustangel11@my.whitworth.edu) or Dayna Coleman (dcoleman@whitworth.edu).

Recent Whitworthian Articles

Here are links to a couple articles that came out in the Whitworthian.

Nov 22:

http://www.whitworthian.com/news/ice-skating-rink-on-back-burner-for-now-1.2414522

http://www.whitworthian.com/opinions/in-the-loop-the-cutter-courts-light-proposal-needs-more-careful-consideration-1.2414560

Nov 17:

http://www.whitworthian.com/news/cutter-court-proposal-passes-but-validity-questioned-1.2408825

Nov 10:

http://www.whitworthian.com/news/funding-for-cutter-court-lights-goes-to-student-vote-1.2401476

An Explanation of ASWU Finances

There are two different financial accounts that the Associated Students of Whitworth University uses. One is what is called a “capital” account and the other is an “unallocated” account. Every year, students pay a fee collected by the University and a portion is given back to the students through ASWU for use through clubs, dorms, and activities directly to benefit the students.

The unallocated account is an account for any expenses incurred throughout the year. Some things that it used for is funding for club activities, planning big events, or dorms-specific special events. Individuals on campus have access to this money through a requisition process. This is monitored by the finance committee which hears out different requests and makes decisions to whether or not approve them. Typically ASWU has on average $6,000 to spend throughout year. Any leftover money at the end of year will be transferred into the capital account.

The capital account is used for any expenses that will benefit students for longer than 5 years i.e. (TV’s for dorms, pool tables, etc). These funds can be requested by students through the same process. The capital account must maintain a balance of at least $5,000 and no more than $20,000.

For more information, read the ASWU FSOPs here (http://www.whitworth.edu/Students/ASWU/GeneralInformation/PDF/FinancialInformation/FSOPS.pdf)

Diagrams for Cutter Courts lights.

Cutter Courts Recall

Dear Whitworth Campus,

Last night in ASWU's assembly meeting, we voted by a 2/3 majority to recall the recent all-campus Cutter Courts vote. This was in response to a petition signed by 10% of the student population that stated students were uninformed and unprepared to vote. The petition cited lack of clear information regarding project details and cost. ASWU validates this petition and will be holding a re-vote for the issue. This action follows the procedures outlined in the ASWU By-Laws--specifically Article VII, Section X. The By-Laws can be found on the ASWU website. (http://www.whitworth.edu/Students/ASWU/ConstitutionBylaws.htm)

ASWU is committed to transparency in government, and we want to serve students as best as possible. Our goal for the time leading up to this re-vote is to make sure that students are adequately prepared. We are currently working on strategies for more effective and efficient dissemination of information. However, we would like to encourage students that, while ASWU needs to be transparent, we all need to be active in seeking information on campus issues.

The voting time line will be emailed to all students by the end of the week, and we will continue to work to clearly inform students about the vote.

Thanks for your understanding, and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Josh Boyden
ASWU President
jboyden11@my.whitworth.edu
(509) 777-4559

Below is the information on the Cutter Courts Lights vote. This is the text that was questioned by the petition. Expect to receive a new version of this information in the next few weeks.

Original

ASWU would like you to vote on the possibility of installing lights around the tennis near Graves Gym. These lights could be used for night-time recreation including basketball, tennis, Frisbee, or soccer and other activities such as dorm programs, dances and movies. The Cutter Courts could also be made into an ice rink in the winter, and utilized for camps during the summer. Installation would take about 9 weeks. The lights and installation would be funded by ASWU money, which comes from the student fees. The upper estimate of the cost is about $40,000. This would come out of the capital budget, which is the long term budget, and would have no effect on ASWU’s more accessible unallocated budget. Currently the capital balance is about $58,000, so we would be left with about $18,000 for requisitions for the rest of the year. Considering the anomaly of this year’s budget, the remaining amount would be slightly lower than that of a usual year.

If passed, ASWU will commit to paying for the lights, up to $40,000, out of the current capital budget of $58,000. Installation would begin shortly, and the lights would ideally be completed in January or February.

If not passed, the money will be left in the capital budget and available for requisitions for other Whitworth community-benefiting purposes.