2008 Woodie Awards
Editorial: Corrupt SGA Finances
Issue date: 4/23/07 Section: Op-Ed
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What can you do in 17 minutes? Well, the Student Government Association (SGA) can approve a budget proposal of over half-a-million dollars in 17 minutes. In the last month it has come to my attention that there are serious problems within the Finance Committee of the West Chester University SGA. In an attempt to get to the bottom of this issue, I have done my own investigation into how our student leadership has been handling the allocation of our tuition.
We will begin with the fact that the SGA has been practicing a closed door policy within the Finance Committee's sessions; this committee exerts absolute control over budget concerns with no oversight or accountability in any form. This closed-door policy (the only one practiced by any SGA standing committee) has shut out the media, the public and the rest of the Senate, rendering the rationale behind the Finance Committee's decisions a complete mystery. In addition, a recent amendment to the financial bylaws prevents the Senate from modifying Finance Committee recommendations. This means that the Senate may vote only 'yes' or 'no' on a budget item - an extremely restrictive requirement. Furthermore, the general Senate receives none of the necessary information needed to make informed decisions, such as budget requests by organizations, previous years' allocations and justifications for the organizations' requests for funding. When you combine all of this, you witness what happens to a committee when there is no accountability and oversight. As of now, the Senate Finance Committee has been endowed with absolute power when it comes to the survival of student organizations receiving funding from the university. Put simply, the money we pay in the form of taxes and tuition is being spent by a committee that does not have to justify its decisions to anyone.
The responsibility of determining the budget is a serious one, but as of late, it would appear that the Finance Committee has taken to marginalizing its own bylaws and has demonstrated a terminal disconnect with reality. We now move onto the fact that there is minimal oversight given to the SGA Finance Committees budget proposal. For example, the budget was passed on Jan. 23, 2007, during a meeting which lasted only 17 minutes. Once the budget was submitted for scrutiny by the Senate, two questions were asked before it was passed. Two questions worth of scrutiny on a $600,000 budget proposal?! No, that's not a misprint, check out the SGA Web site where you will find that, our representatives spent less than 17 minutes evaluating the expenditure of over $600,000. Our next example comes from the March 6, 2007, meeting during which there was the final speed passing of the budget. However, this time one of the senators demanded to know why they were not better informed regarding the reasoning behind the Finance Committee's decisions, to which the Treasurer responded, "That's what the [Finance] committee is for. Many senators don't know how budgets work so it make[s] it easier to keep it in the committee." Yes, we agree; when the Senate wants to do pesky things like provide oversight and accountability to the Finance Committee, it makes passing a $600,000 budget so tedious. The problem should be crystallizing at this point as we realize that the members of the Finance Committee - students just like you and me - are receiving little to no oversight from the SGA.
We will begin with the fact that the SGA has been practicing a closed door policy within the Finance Committee's sessions; this committee exerts absolute control over budget concerns with no oversight or accountability in any form. This closed-door policy (the only one practiced by any SGA standing committee) has shut out the media, the public and the rest of the Senate, rendering the rationale behind the Finance Committee's decisions a complete mystery. In addition, a recent amendment to the financial bylaws prevents the Senate from modifying Finance Committee recommendations. This means that the Senate may vote only 'yes' or 'no' on a budget item - an extremely restrictive requirement. Furthermore, the general Senate receives none of the necessary information needed to make informed decisions, such as budget requests by organizations, previous years' allocations and justifications for the organizations' requests for funding. When you combine all of this, you witness what happens to a committee when there is no accountability and oversight. As of now, the Senate Finance Committee has been endowed with absolute power when it comes to the survival of student organizations receiving funding from the university. Put simply, the money we pay in the form of taxes and tuition is being spent by a committee that does not have to justify its decisions to anyone.
The responsibility of determining the budget is a serious one, but as of late, it would appear that the Finance Committee has taken to marginalizing its own bylaws and has demonstrated a terminal disconnect with reality. We now move onto the fact that there is minimal oversight given to the SGA Finance Committees budget proposal. For example, the budget was passed on Jan. 23, 2007, during a meeting which lasted only 17 minutes. Once the budget was submitted for scrutiny by the Senate, two questions were asked before it was passed. Two questions worth of scrutiny on a $600,000 budget proposal?! No, that's not a misprint, check out the SGA Web site where you will find that, our representatives spent less than 17 minutes evaluating the expenditure of over $600,000. Our next example comes from the March 6, 2007, meeting during which there was the final speed passing of the budget. However, this time one of the senators demanded to know why they were not better informed regarding the reasoning behind the Finance Committee's decisions, to which the Treasurer responded, "That's what the [Finance] committee is for. Many senators don't know how budgets work so it make[s] it easier to keep it in the committee." Yes, we agree; when the Senate wants to do pesky things like provide oversight and accountability to the Finance Committee, it makes passing a $600,000 budget so tedious. The problem should be crystallizing at this point as we realize that the members of the Finance Committee - students just like you and me - are receiving little to no oversight from the SGA.
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