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Finance committee resigns
By Nick Hanson
Published:
Monday, February 28, 2005
Due to internal conflict among some student government members, the entire student finance committee resigned Feb. 17.
The seven-member finance committee's purpose is to allocate funds from student activity fees among all of the student organizations on campus. According to the Center of Student Organizations and Leadership Development (CSOLD) Web site, there are 227 student organizations on campus. Various organization budgets run from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Finance chair Ibrahim Bah said that he and his fellow finance members resigned because they believe certain executive members of student government have shown bias toward particular organizations when approving or denying budget requests and dealing with fiscal matters.
"In order to work with them, you have to be a part of a certain thinking. And if you're not, then they basically consider you an outsider," he said. "That basically means that they will participate in punishing certain organizations."
When a student organization requests money, they approach the finance committee. Then, the committee analyzes the proposal and decides whether or not the request should be approved according to a list of rules and procedures. When the committee makes a decision, they inform student government, which votes to deny or approve.
"We've had people say that they will never vote to approve any funding for athletic groups," Bah said. "We've had other organizations that were denied because there was some issues that student government supported and they did not. They denied their request for money."
Student government president Hal Kimball said that every member of student government votes differently.
"We have senators that remain consistent. There are senators who don't believe we should be funding certain types of organizations," he said.
Kimball also discredits bias claims.
"I don't persuade anybody with a vote. I don't debate or tell a senator to vote for this or vote for that," he said. "The only time I do is when the issue is extremely vital, and then I will pass the gavel."
Vice-chair of the finance committee Yee Ling Mui said that Kimball has the ability to press his beliefs onto others both inside and outside of meetings.
"They are not going to come out and tell you 'we don't support groups that don't support us,' but it's obvious they do," she said. "He passes the gavel a lot."
Legislative chair Gordie Loewen said that there have been strains between student government and the finance committee throughout the duration of the year.
"There has been a disagreement all year between the finance committee and the senate about how the committee functions," he said. "To be honest, as much as I was confident in their ability, they were never elected by the students."
Because the student body did not elect the finance committee, student government has the final say in all organization fiscal matters. Therefore, Loewen said that the committee was wrong to believe that their recommendations should be final. He did, however, say that they took their consideration into effect.
"We trusted them to formulate and make recommendations as a whole," Loewen said. "I had no problem with the job they were doing."
Before the entire finance committee resigned, while in a student government meeting, Loewen made a movement to the judicial council to remove the finance chair (Bah) for willful neglect of duty. After Kimball passed the gavel, a debate ensued and the motion to dismiss was carried 14-1-1.
The reasoning for the movement was that Bah missed two and a half Thursday night student government meetings during spring semester due to a class conflict.
Bah said that he had informed Kimball and was in the process of finding someone to attend the Thursday night meetings, and didn't understand the reasoning for the motion.
"If they have a problem with something they should come and talk to us," Bah said.
In a letter from the associate vice-president of administrative affairs and advisor of student government Diana Burlison written to Bah, she stated approval of the finance committee's performance this year.
A passage from the document reads, "Historically, when there are issues with the activities of the finance committee, it is apparent in business services because the numbers of student groups looking for budget transfers, status of their request for free balance etc., become problematic. There have not been any instances of this during the current academic year. This indicates to me the students are being served well by the finance committee."
After the entire committee resigned, an interim chair was appointed and is helping deal with student organization finances along with Kimball until all the positions are advertised and filled. Right now, Kimball, the interim and others are addressing budget allocations for student organizations next year.
"Upon their resignation, I took decisive action and formulated a plan almost immediately," Kimball said. "I don't think it is a conflict of interest."
Loewen believes that the resignation will have little impact on student organizations.
"If I can see any possible outward effect, it might be about the budget packets (for next year)," Loewen said. "It's going to be a lot of work to get the budget stuff done. Those that remain committed will do the best we can."
Bah believes that the budgets for next year's organizations, and financial matters in general, will suffer as a result of their resignation.
"I really feel for organizations they don't like. They will only allocate money to people that they favor," he said. "If it's done by people who don't know what's going on, they will misallocate in the end."
Mui-- who would have taken finance chair over Bah had she stayed on the committee-- agrees with Bah.
"I'm not an unethical person. It seems real shady," she said. "We're supporting Ibrahim (Bah),"
When asked how student government may be run differently this year, Kimball responded, "Student government is not a network of friends as it may have been in the past," he said. "My perception of previous student government is that it was more of a social club."
Rhodes almost resigns
In an e-mail sent on Feb. 13 and obtained by the University Chronicle, student government vice-president Bianca Rhodes resigned from her position. In the letter, Rhodes listed various reasons for her resignation.
Following are several passages from the letter: "I really don't care if there will be some negativity against me for my resignation because honestly, I did what I could, with the time that I had. I have tried to run meetings, and they have ran away from me and turned into chaos and I think that is because I believe that I have probably became simply a doormat," "There are so many accomplishments that we could have done this year but didn't happen" and "Senators need to do their job. I have been noticing that this is not happening."
Judicial council, however, ruled that the letter did not constitute a resignation because of its electronic format and ruled that Rhodes remain vice-president. After meeting with Kimball, Rhodes decided to hold her position for the semester.
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