By Lauren DiTullio, News Staff
The Student Government Association (SGA) website says a summary of its Student Activity Fee (SAF) allocation will be posted once per month at minimum. But the last update was put on the site Sept. 26.
“This document will be updated no less than once per month, but generally will be updated weekly,” the site says. The document reflects the decisions of the Finance Board with regard to the SAF, a $116 fee every student is required to pay. It is allocated to fund events and performances – including the recent Q&A with Andy Samberg – as well as providing funding for student groups.
The Finance Board meets every week. SGA closed these meetings to the public in September.
Student Body President Ryan Fox said in an e-mail to The News that SGA is dedicated to resolving the lack of electronically published documents.
“Many of these documents are not required to be online by any policy, but it is something that we have done to increase transparency of our operations. We’re committed to finding solutions that will allow for the ability to keep these updated over the long-term,” Fox said in the e-mail.
Fox also said students are more than welcome to request any public documents, but that none have been requested recently to his knowledge.
In addition to the SAF allocation, other documents that appear online are outdated. The last senate agenda to have been posted is from Nov. 30, 2009. SGA’s seven executive board members, as well as chief of staff and executive director of communications, are also required to complete a monthly report about each of their activities.
While the most current reports from October 2010 are available for some executive board members, four have not recently updated their reports online.
Fox and Vice President of Student Affairs Ashley Caron haven’t filed since September, Communications Director Taylor Cotter last posted in October and Comptroller Andrew Phenix has yet to post a report since being elected at the end of last school year.
Although these documents have not been updated, SGA’s website has been updated to reflect other events on campus, such as the recently proposed scheduling changes. They also updated the homepage during Homecoming Week.
Former SGA senator Jordan Clark, who has publicly disagreed with Fox in the past, said he advocated that the documents be made available to students during his time in SGA.
“They could update the website for homecoming. But not [Finance Board],” Clark said.
Following Monday night’s meeting, Fox attributed the publication issues to problems with the website’s server and the way it interacts with files. Chief of Staff Mike Splain announced during the meeting that the website would be moving to a new server in the coming weeks and requested the help of any senators with technical expertise.
“I’m not surprised,” Clark said. “They didn’t do it when I was in SGA. I understand that there might be technical issues, but at the same time, if you really want the students to be able to see where their money is going, you figure it out.”
Clark said SGA’s decision to put the SAF allocation documentation online resulted mostly from his urging, and that it was a “good start.” He said making the information available to students would be something that SGA would do well to advertise and promote, because it would create a positive image and feeling of “openness” for the association. Obviously, he said, they are unable to do so because they are not following through on the claim.
“I just want to see [SGA] do what they say they’re going to do,” Clark said. “Student group leaders are concerned, because they present to the Finance Board, and the Finance Board tells them that there’s no money left for the month. And then the groups [that were denied funding] want to know where the money went instead, and they go online to see, and it’s not there.”
Vice president of Northeastern University Dance Company (NUDANCO) Katie Fulton said the group was denied a significant amount of funding this year that it had generally received in the past. Fulton said the group applied for several thousand dollars and was denied about a third of its request. The money they requested was mostly to pay for time in Blackman Auditorium for the company’s traditional two performances per semester, she said.
“This came as a tremendous shock,” Fulton said. “For the past four years … we may not have received all the money we applied for, but we’ve been able to secure the necessary funds to put on our performances.”
Fulton said the Finance Board cited two reasons for denying NUDANCO the money. One was that the group’s following is not large enough to warrant the full allocation of the sum it requested, and the other was that “there are so many programs applying for funding.”
Fulton said while she would probably still not be “entirely comfortable” with the Finance Board’s decision, she would feel better if she could see how the money had been spent.
“I probably would question funding priorities, but I would have a greater understanding of what is going on and be more willing to accept the decision [not to fund our program],” she said.
