Student groups lose flexibility

Student Government Board voted to take back some of the accountability previously given to… Student Government Board voted to take back some of the accountability previously given to Student Life-affiliated groups Thursday.

Beginning next year, the groups – the Asian Student Alliance, Black Action Society, Interfraternity Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Panhellenic Council and Resident Student Association – will need the approval of SGB if they want to move money from approved events to other events.

Presently, the six groups – formerly classified as governance groups – are granted a certain amount of money by SGB each year, which they can transfer to different events provided they have their adviser’s signature.

With this change, the organizations will need to appeal to the allocations committee instead of their advisers for any programming changes. The groups will maintain the ability to transfer funds from one program to another, similar one, e.g., a speaker to another speaker.

Allocations chair Michelle Turbanic said that her committee is familiar with most of the organizations’ events because they are traditional and occur every year. She said that this decision should not affect the groups very much.

“Two-point-three million dollars is a lot of money. And it’s students’ hard-earned money,” Turbanic said, referring to the Student Activities Fee. “And that’s one of the reasons why we just want to keep a closer eye on it.

“A couple of organizations have unfortunately done some things with funding that the allocations committee and the board would have never allowed,” she said.

Board President Joe Pasqualichio said, however, that the decision to make the change was not based on previous, inappropriate actions of any group.

He said that the main reason the change was taking place was because the board needs to know exactly what events are being held.

“It’s a matter of accountability and responsibility on who is supposed to handle this money,” Pasqualichio said, after asking the board members to raise their hands. “These are the people that were voted into office, right there with their hands up. The reason they were voted into office and responsibility of Student Government – and probably our main purpose – is to be accountable for the Student Activity Fee.”

Pasqualichio added that it was not the advisers’ responsibility to give out money for the Student Activity Fee.

“If you want any group’s advisers to come and sit at the table,” Pasqualichio said, “then fine, but that’s not how it is right now.”

Some of the groups’ leaders did not agree with the change.

Nitin Aggarwal, president of ASA, said that the advisers were capable of redistributing money, and suggested that the board train advisers on ways to manage money.

“In the past, it’s not like SGB hasn’t incorrectly spent money on funding that students didn’t necessarily agree with, but SGB has almost full control over that $2.3 million,” Aggarwal said. “I’m not saying anything against this board or past boards. I’m just saying that someone has to have control over it, and I don’t necessarily agree that SGB should have full control over that 2.3 million.”

Bryan Reiff, the business manager of ASA, said that he didn’t find out about the change until a few days before the board voted on it. His adviser showed him a memorandum from Director of Student Life Kenyon Bonner that approved the changes.

“I happened to be in our adviser’s office, and she showed me it,” Reiff said in a phone interview Friday. “But she had the impression they were talking about it, not voting.”

According to Reiff, none of the other groups knew about the memorandum either, and were shocked after they heard about it.

“I felt that last night they let us speak, but they weren’t really listening,” Reiff said. “I feel that they had their minds pretty much made up.”

Not everyone was against the vote, however.

Dan Morrison, president of IFC, said that his organization supported the board’s decision.

“It might make it more difficult, but I’d probably agree with it,” Morrison said. “You go to fly on an airplane and it’s hard to get on because there are all these metal detectors, but it ensures that everything is done right.”

Although Morrison supported SGB’s decision, he did ask that, in the future, the board inform the organizations’ presidents before making a major change.

Pasqualichio said that the board had discussed the change in previous meetings and had not received any feedback from any of the groups. He also said the reason the board voted on the matter Thursday and not earlier was because it wanted to hear what the groups had to say.

But some of the organizations had not sent representatives to the meetings and were unaware of the talks.

“My only request is, you guys said you wanted input from us, and you noticed that we didn’t have anyone here for a month,” Morrison said. “An e-mail takes a minute.”

In addition to not knowing the specifics of the policy change, some of the groups’ representatives felt that their organizations were being targeted while other groups were not.

The Pitt Program Council, Student Volunteer Organization, WPTS and Telefact remain unaffected by the memorandum and do not lose any of the autonomy they have.

In past years, these groups received a percentage of money that SGB did not control, but former Dean of Student Life Jack Daniel changed that when he granted SGB the power to raise or lower their percentages beginning this fiscal year.

But these groups still have the autonomy that the Student Life-affiliated groups now do not have.

“If SGB wants accountability across the line, then that’s fine,” Reiff said, “but it should be across the line with every group.”

Pasqualichio said the board could examine this issue.

At the end of the meeting, he reiterated his belief that students should be responsible for the Student Activity Fee.

“We don’t want our administrators or our staff to be responsible for the Student Activity Fee.” Pasqualichio said. “This is something we fought very hard for a while back, and you have it. It’s right in front of you.”