Student Association officials alleged that Student Assembly representatives misused their power in Monday night’s 11-hour final markup of the $2.3 million SA budget.
Elahd Bar-Shai, the chair of the Assembly, said that Monday’s proceedings were meant to give representatives a check on the SA Financial Council, the organization that drafts the budget, but that they may have gone too far in the other direction.
“We ended up overcompensating — significantly,” he said.
Each Assembly representative was guaranteed the opportunity to amend the budget in order to correct any mistakes the SA Financial Council may have made. But some representatives used their motions to increase the amount of money allocated to their own groups.
At least four Assembly members motioned to increase the budgets of groups with which they were directly affiliated. Robert Glass, a member of Speech and Debate, successfully motioned to increase that group’s budget by $3,000. Phil Calderon, director of the Rainbow Pride Union, earned his group a $1,000 increase. Nick Valiando, chairman of College Republicans, made a motion that led to a $450 increase to his group’s budget. Shannah Sherman, a member of the Society of Women Engineers, motioned to increase that group’s budget by $700, but the Assembly voted against any increase for the group.
The actions of these representatives did not violate any bylaws or Constitutional provisions, and all budget changes were approved by a majority vote of the Assembly.
“No significant rules were violated,” Bar-Shai said, “but it has become clear that our conflict of interest policy is insufficient.” He also said that measures would be taken next year to change budget procedures.
Adam Shamah, vice president for finance, was also disappointed with the results of the meeting. He was one of the most outspoken critics of the process.
“I think the budget should have failed,” Shamah said. He alleged that many of the amendments to the budget were “motivated by self-interest,” and that other amendments were made arbitrarily.
“Some groups that were lucky enough to have a friend on the Assembly benefited,” he said.
As vice president for finance, Shamah helped set the rules for the hearing. He was involved in changing this year’s rules to correct a situation last year when the budget passed without giving each Assembly representative a chance to amend it.
But Ed Mays, the SA treasurer, said that the efforts for greater oversight did not have the intended effects.
“That was not oversight,” he said. “It was ‘let’s see what I can get for me and my friends.’”
“People are going to find a way to work the system,” he added. “The only thing you can do is make it less corrupt.”
Justin Utegg, SA Financial Council and Assembly representative for Off Campus College Council, thought the oversight granted to the Assembly was excessive.
“The Assembly is uninformed on financial decisions,” Utegg said. He said SA Financial Council does a more thorough analysis of group budgets — a process that includes meeting with the groups and making allocation decisions based on groups’ year-to-date financial reports, fundraising records, other financial documents and overall money management.
Though a number of groups benefited from the budget markup, some groups did have their budgets cut.
Among these, Juvenile Urban Multicultural Program, commonly known as JUMP Nation, received one of the bigger cuts to their budget, which fell from $13,000 to $8,000.
JUMP Nation is a group that buses eighth grade students from New York City to BU with the goal of increasing higher education enrollment.