The wording of an Associated Students, Inc., memo has caused confusion for the Children?s Center Parent Advisory Committee. PAC says the memo gives both Associate Director Pat Worley and PAC the responsibility of finding and implementing a solution to the closing of the Center?s evening program.
ASI says the intent of the legislation is clear: Worley?s role is to provide support for PAC by looking into the legalities of solutions that it proposes.
"We don?t want to supercede PAC," said ASI President Jason Bryant.
The memo from Bryant, approved by ASI on Sept. 27, has two motions. The first charges the Children?s Center Parent Advisory Committee with making recommendations to the Board of Directors concerning the Children?s Center program. It also asks that the PAC establish a budget subcommittee.
The second motion authorizes the ASI executive vice president to establish a Parent Works Team to address broader parent-student issues.
According to Chris Miller, chair of the PAC budget subcommittee, the confusion comes from a small paragraph at the end of the memo that reads, " I (Jason Bryant) have also discussed the issue with the executive director (Carol Ackerson) and she has agreed to make finding and implementing a solution to night service a staff priority with our new associate director (Worley) taking on the assignment."
Miller and the rest of PAC thought this paragraph gave Worley a share of the responsibility of finding and implementing a solution.
According to Miller, this paragraph caused PAC to operate under the assumption that Worley was actively looking for solutions.
"I thought the associate director was looking into finding a new model; she is the perfect person to look into the matter," Miller said.
Worley, the former Child Center director, confirmed ASI?s position that her role was not to create alternative solutions but to provide support to PAC.
"I?m not producing proposals. My role as I was told is to provide support to Terry Mahan (Child Center director) and other entities that have proposals to the solution."
One of PAC?s concerns, according to Miller, is time. PAC believes that finding a solution before registration for next semester is vital.
"We need to determine the fate of the Children?s Center before spring so students can register" Miller said.
Another obstacle that PAC faces is interpreting the paperwork. PAC must decipher the Center?s line item budget before it can make any recommendations, and according to Miller, this has been difficult.
"We?re not equipped to look at line-item numbers and make recommendations, we?re not accountants." PAC is currently looking for parents and faculty with an accounting background that can help.
While Worley was not asked by ASI to look into alternative solutions, she has made herself available to PAC. Worley attended the first PAC meeting but was not asked to sit on the budget subcommittee and has not been contacted by PAC since.
ASI admits the wording is unclear but it insists that the intention of the legislation was never to commit Worley to investigating solutions. Ackerson has said that Worley?s role is not to actively seek an alternative solution because ASI did not want to interfere with PAC.
PAC was under the impression that actively seek alternative solutions independent from PAC, and would like to see that happen, so this matter may be settled in a timely manner.
