In coordination with Linfield University, the Associated Students of Linfield University (ASLU) is in the beginning stages of being formally absorbed into Linfield’s administration. The planned acquisition is set to be completed by the May 2025 board meeting, per an email sent out by the president’s office.
“The details will be developed in collaboration with the board, the vice president of student affairs and the vice president for finance and administration,” a representative from the president’s office stated in an email sent Nov. 13, 2024.
ASLU is normally a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit organization independent of Linfield University. According to its website, its mission is “to improve 24/7 student life at Linfield.” This designation, among other benefits, gives the organization federal tax exemptions. However, ASLU lost its nonprofit designation in 2023 due to not filing in the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
Established in 1971, the student advocacy group’s status as an independent entity is unique to higher education, especially in the private for-profit educational sector.
ASLU works jointly with Linfield’s administration to secure student’s rights and safety on campus. Recently, it funded the installation of safety nets to catch foul balls, protecting cars parked near the softball field. It has also supported the installation of peepholes in every dormitory door, using a yearly operating budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars per ASLU’s 2019 fiscal year tax filing with the IRS. A portion of ASLU’s funding comes from the student body fee that all on-campus and full-time students pay, totaling $310 per student for the academic year.
The decision was developed in a task force created in tandem with the Linfield administration, current ASLU vice president of finance Stephany Castellanos-Welsh said, which included Vice President of Student Affairs Jeff Mackay and other university faculty.
“The cabinet would meet twice a month with university faculty members. We would go through with our non-profit status and talk to professionals, other universities, on what they had done, what our options were. We came to a general consensus as ASLU to move forward, which was presented to the board members at the end of the fall.”
ASLU also controls the funding for intramural sports, the Wildcat Events Board, Wildstock, the on-campus game room, the Linfield Review, and more. Furthermore, it runs the activities council, which uses its club fund to finance groups like Linfield University Pride, the Black Student Union, Hui o Lokahi, Linfield University Latine Adelante, and their respective events.
“We still need to discuss the nitty gritty, but the major thing that would change is taxes,” said Castellanos-Welsh.
Diego Arredondo, a senior majoring in accounting and finance and former ASLU Vice President of Finance, oversaw much of ASLU’s efforts. “We are actually the only school in the area that had two separate entities for the student government and the school. That was very unique to Linfield. In a way, it makes me sad, but given the circumstances, and the falling behind on taxes, and not knowing about the 50(c)(3), and the IRs not getting back to us, we can’t take on that liability, so I think it ends up being the best option in this point in time.”
Arredondo was the acting vice president of finance when the IRS sent ASLU a letter notifying them that their nonprofit status had been revoked.
ASLU failed to file in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. “This was due to a variety of factors, mainly COVID. No one was on campus, and that year’s cabinet group didn’t receive proper training… That was the main reason behind the shortfall in regard to the taxes. Another primary reason was that our supervisor quit and took a different job that year. So not only was the incoming cabinet not trained, but they also didn’t have the guidance of their supervisor who had been there for a healthy amount of time. Those two things led to those things not being completed.”
Castellanos-Welsh stressed that the decision wasn’t just because of the loss of ASLU’s nonprofit status.
“I have used previous VPs of finance as mentors, and having talked to both Diego (Arredondo) and Andrew (Grenz) it seems that it was already an idea that was passed around prior to us losing our nonprofit status. Last year’s cabinet started looking to see what steps it would take. So, as a cabinet, we decided it was something worth looking into. Our choice to merge with the school didn’t have much to do… It was more like hearing out previous cabinets and making our own decisions,” Castellanos-Welsh said.
Castellanos-Welsh said the ASLU has taken steps to protect against potential abuses of power. “We have plans and have been working on documentation to make sure that our budget will only be for ASLU and that the University doesn’t have any ability to use those funds. That was a very big topic in our discussions that we kept reiterating.”
One additional action the ASLU is taking is rewriting their bylaws. “The ASLU cabinet has really thought about the best interest of the students at this university are,” Castellanos-Welsh said. “We want to make sure that student funds go to students and not other things that aren’t directly for the students. We have had great support from the university and great professionals who explained the situation to us. It was not a quick decision to make, we spent a lot of time even outside of task force meetings talking about it. It wasn’t an easy or quick decision.”
