USAC to discuss proposal seeking engagement in fund allocation

The undergraduate student government will discuss permanently adding all of the general representatives of the council to the historically independent finance committee at its meeting tonight.

Tamir Sholklapper, the Student Wellness commissioner for the 2011-2012 Undergraduate Students Association Council, drafted the proposal to make USAC more engaged in the allocation of contingency funds.

Sholklapper said he wrote the proposal to ensure that slate politics do not affect the finance committee chair office. Sholklapper consulted with Cynthia Jasso, the current finance committee chair.

The finance committee chair provides suggestions for how the allocation of contingency funds should be broken up at every meeting. Suggestions are generally approved unanimously by the council without question or discussion, Jasso said.

Under the proposal, there must be two of the three general representatives present for finance committee meetings to be able to take place, Jasso said.

The proposal only suggests putting the general representatives on the finance committee, and not involving them in other funds like the Community Service Mini Fund because those already receive input from USAC, Sholklapper added.

The decision on the proposal has to be made during the current transition period between finance committee chairs. The current chair’s term will end on June 30 and the new chair’s term will begin June 1, Sholklapper said.

The general representatives would join at the start of the new finance committee chair’s term so that the chair stays consistent throughout the year in addition to providing about a month for the general representatives to be trained, he added.

The council will still have a majority of the vote and the representatives won’t vote on things pertaining to their office or council-wide initiatives, he said.

Jasso, however, does not agree with the plan and said she thinks it is counterintuitive.

“If they wanted to show initiative they would attend the finance committee meetings without being forced,” she said.

Jasso said she thinks the addition of a general representative to the committee won’t change the vote, and that the council will approve the weekly suggested allocations the same way as before.

The finance committee is currently independent of USAC, with none of its members allowed to be involved with any USAC office, and by adding the general representatives to the committee, it would no longer be neutral, she added.

“(The general representatives) will interact with everyone on the committee and that will create a certain bias,” Jasso said.

“So whether a person grades their own application or not there is that interaction and that will create a perceived bias.”

Jasso said she does not review any funding requests from the council because of how much interaction she has with council members as the committee chair, so that there is not any perceived bias.

This will be one of the last decisions the current council makes before the newly elected council steps in its place.

Jasso also said she doesn’t think the current council should vote on the proposal.

The discussion over the change will not involve the newly elected council, said Yasar Mohebi, current general representative three.

“(The current council) has no incentive to do a great or terrible job because they won’t be affected by the decision,” Jasso said.

If the council were to vote to push the decision to next week, the new review committee would have to discuss the proposal for another week before it is brought to the newly elected council, Mohebi added.

Sunny Singh, one of the newly elected general representatives, said he thinks the proposal is a good idea.

“There are $4 million in student fees, and having the knowledge of where that’s going is difficult,” he said. “(The proposal) would add more transparency to the funding process.”

Lizzy Naameh, one of the other newly elected general representatives, however, has a different opinion.

“I’m hesitant about this proposal because partisan politics shouldn’t be involved when it comes to handling finances for the student body,” she said.

Sholklapper said he has many variations of the proposal ready in case the council finds discrepancies in the original plan after he proposes it tonight.

“It’s not a matter of if something underhanded will happen: it’s a matter of when, and who would know even if it did,” Sholklapper said. “The proposal is not reactive; it’s proactive to make sure (something bad) doesn’t happen.”