By Alyson St. Amand and Steve Babcock
The conflict between the Student Government Association and the Resident Student Association was given jolt at the end of last week as members of SGA are pushing for the creation of a committee to investigate all undergraduate student fees.
The legislation proposed by SGA would create a committee that would focus two weeks of attention on RSA’s imposed residential student fee, at the end of which a report will be delivered to the university’s Board of Trustees.
RSA’s Vice President for Financial Affairs Keri Crocitto said RSA is being unfairly singled out.
“I do get the impression that this is pointing the finger at RSA,” she said, referring to the use of the RSA’s name and standards throughout the legislation.
“I think [SGA] have a responsibility to the students. I think accountability is critical regardless of the organization. Every organization should be held up to its membership for scrutiny,” said Dean of Student Affairs Ron Martel.
SGA has spent the last eight months looking at fees on campus. According to SGA Vice President of Financial Affairs Michael L. Benson, the Residential Student Activities Fee was looked at because as a student group, RSA collected the largest fee on campus.
“We want to know how it’s collected, how it’s controlled, how it’s dispersed and how it’s monitored. We want to know the sanction of money that they spend per year, if it rolls over, and what it goes to,” said SGA President Richard Schwabacher.
SGA is questioning RSA’s ability to impose fees on students.
As part of tuition, every undergraduate student in classes pays $17 per quarter in the Student Activities Fee to support 40 student groups on campus and provide funding for all other groups through the special request fund.
“Whether or not SGA has the right to examine our expenses is debatable. Currently, they believe they have the right and from what I understand, they do not,” said RSA President Daniel S. Loveman.
The two groups are also in disagreement over how the situation between the two has been handled and who is responsible for the apparent lack of communication. Each group maintains the other’s responsibility for the breakdown in communication. Benson said the proposed committee is in response to RSA’s lack of cooperation, after he made several attempts to contact RSA over the summer.
“When Vice President Benson approached me during the summer and asked for financial information, I informed him that I was not going to step on my vice president for finance’s toes and any financial data he needed would have to be obtained through her. That was the last I heard from him on this topic,” said Loveman.
Crocitto argued that she was never contacted about providing information on their budget and student fee.
