A General Studies Student Council financial town hall, held Tuesday night instead of the usual GSSC meeting, left some concerned with the state of the council’s budget while others claimed foul play on the part of the council’s leadership.
At the meeting, some students took issue with expenditures for the fall orientation and student council retreat as well as the sum owed to student clubs.
According to the budget handed out at the meeting, the costs of the fall New Student Orientation Program and the student council retreat totaled $9,796.95 and $7,797.98, respectively, amounts attendees felt were extravagant, especially considering the current GSSC budget crisis.
“We definitely see now that spending that much money ... was a mistake,” said Vice President for Policy Nancy Saunders, GS. Saunders commented that she thought the spending was a result of a “new council that wanted to do or improve upon what was done in the past.” The council bought into the University’s NSOP for the first time, and provided custom GS water bottles to incoming students.
However, of the retreat, she said, “I, for one, feel that there should be some alternate option that is less expensive.”
Vice President for Finances Keith Hightower said that the financial planning of the orientation and retreats had taken place without him over the summer, and that Associate Dean Dominic Stellini gave him the authorization forms after the spending had already been decided.
“I would have advised against it,” Hightower said Monday.
But the major money sink was the $70,351 owed to funding of student clubs, including $27,323 owed to the Activities Board Committee and $8,761 to the Student Governing Board. While these contributions allow GS students to fully participate in the groups and hold positions on governing boards, they absorb more than $140,000 a year in GS funds.
“Without paying into those governing boards, that opportunity [to participate] is not there,” Stellini said.
Stellini, Hightower and GSSC President Niko Cunningham all pointed to a decrease in enrollment and stagnant student life fee revenues as the causes of the current financial struggles, mentioning that the budget was decided before these trends were realized. Stellini also said that for GSSC to achieve parity with the other student councils, it was inevitable that more money would have to be spent on activities with the other three undergraduate councils.
Hightower also raised the possibility of changing the structure of the student life fees, meaning full-time students would pay more than part-time students.
GS class presidents said that they were developing events that would not require funding, and would instead make do with what little they had for the rest of the semester.
But some attendees alleged that Cunningham had mishandled finances and failed to go through proper channels when spending student life funds. Ex-Vice President of Student Life Cheryl Berg and former Social Chair Ashley Forman accused Cunningham of signing off on expenditures himself without sending them through Hightower.
Hightower said that he would launch an official investigation into the allegations, but Cunningham said that he had the authority to sign off on them himself, and that rules requiring the treasurer to approve financial forms were outdated because they were written prior to the creation of ABC and SGB groups.
“I feel that students raised the issues, and they’re not council members, and they are students, and this is their money,” Hightower said. “I have a responsibility to investigate the situation.”
But Cunningham expressed dismay at the lack of progress the council had made since starting off the spring semester, and hinted that he may make a meeting rule barring participation from certain students at the next GSSC meeting.
“Three people have just made this thing this big fireball,” Cunningham said.