By Steve Babcock

The figures that round out the university’s annual financial plan will now be made available to a select group of students known as the University Budget Committee.

The UBC, as it is known, is an arm of the Student Government Association given access to university financial records to oversee the students’ use of the university’s money.

Five out of the six members of the SGA executive board sit on the committee, along with what is supposed to be one member of the general student body, also known as an at-large member, for every member of SGA that sits on the committee.

According to SGA’s Constitution, the number of senators and at-large members are supposed to be equal.

Michael Benson, the vice president for financial affairs who chairs the committee, said the UBC is currently having trouble finding students to be at-large members. Instead, they are adding more student senators for increased student input.

Constitutionally, it is the only committee that President Michael Romano is allowed to sit on as a voting member because of its theoretical, although not practical, independence from SGA.

The committee has evolved somewhat over time from a mainly executive committee that used to discuss financial priorities and investigate individual student groups that were misusing the money they were allocated.

This year, though, with the new influence SGA has with seats on the university’s Committee on Funding Priorities, Benson said that the committee will become more “legislative.”

Although the members are not elected, more students are sitting on the committee than ever before.

President Richard Freeland only grants access of the records to the UBC, the Faculty Senate’s Finance Committee and upper administration, including the Board of Trustees, who have a say in the final budget vote.

Freeland has said the records have not been more accessible, due to what Benson called a “potential for leakage” to the general population.

SGA Senator Tina Penman took issue with the UBC being granted such special privileges and gaining so much authority over bills that the Senate has to pass as a whole.

“How am I supposed to vote on a bill and give 100 percent when I can’t even see all the information about the bill?” she said. “Things aren’t legitimate. When they’re just throwing numbers around, it doesn’t make sense.”

Other senators, though, such as Andres Vargas, said that the individuals on the board were able to negotiate and crunch the numbers in a manner that would stand up for the students’ rights.

“You have to trust the officials you elected,” he said.

If SGA passes the legislation, they will have to do just that, as Romano and Benson will use it as the centerpiece of negotiation with the Committee on Funding Priorities, the University Budget Review Committee on which they sit, and the Board of Trustees.

UBC will continue to meet and make budget reccomendations in the students’ interest.