The Student Association on Monday approved the formation of a committee to review the organization’s roughly $90,000 operating budget, a move the group’s president says meets a campaign promise of making the group more accountable.

“It’s in order for transparency and accountability and all of these sorts of things to be shown,” president Boris Gresely said in an interview after SA’s 7:30 p.m. meeting in Maxwell Auditorium.

“And to definitely make sure that we’re empowering the assembly, we’re also employing the people — the constituency, the students — so that they know where all this money’s going to,” he said.

SA’s speaker of the assembly is expected to appoint five people to the Special Committee on the Budget within the next few days. The committee will review the budget, see if it meets the student assembly’s priorities and will make a recommendation.

Gresely said the committee will allow for greater transparency, because SA’s budget will be talked about during its meetings. He added that the move will make the organization’s cabinet accountable to the student assembly.

In 2012, SA violated its codes by spending almost $4,000 to hold a formal. When asked if the idea for the committee was in response to that use of money, Gresely said he thinks it was “to a certain degree.”

Like other student organizations on campus, the student activity fee covers SA’s budget. For undergraduate students enrolled in 12 or more credits, the fee is $203. SA works to allocate the money to student groups, such as University Union.

SA started with about $88,000 in its current budget, and has approximately $30,000 left, Gresely said. About $40,000 of that money goes to covering half of the program that provides free copies of USA Today and The New York Times on campus; the Division of Student Affairs covers the other half of the newspaper program, he said.

Proposed budgets for student organizations are due in early March. The Special Committee on the Budget will dissolve April 15 after the budget process is done.

Other Business Discussed:

The President’s Report

In a report earlier in the meeting, Gresely addressed the assembly for more than 15 minutes. He called on the student and assembly representatives alike to make their voices heard about issues they see on campus.

For the second week in a row, Gresely brought up how the Syracuse University football team is scheduled to play Louisville on Oct. 3 — Yom Kippur.

An assembly representative raised the issue of whether the day of the football game should be something SA should pursue. She added that addressing increases in tuition might be something more worth pursuing.

Gresely said the example of the football game happening on Yom Kippur was “philosophical” and only one example of a campus issue.

“What I’m saying is that it’s the value component of who we are,” he said. “We can’t let that be pushed aside for money or whatever that is.”

He said the issue of tuition increases could be addressed as well. Evoking the words of President Barack Obama, Gresely talked broadly about the need to get students “fired up.”

Toward the end of his report, he went around and asked a few people in the room if they “were pissed” tuition is going up.

When Gresely posed that question to speaker of the assembly Ben Jones, he replied: “I mean, I graduate, so,” to laughs from the assembly.

Women’s Leadership Week

Later in the meeting, former SA president and current assembly representative Allie Curtis talked about Women’s Leadership Week — a working title — an event that will be held April 1-5.

Elect Her, a national initiative that looks to get women involved in politics, is the culmination of the week, Curtis said in an interview after the meeting.

Board Elections

The student assembly voted to re-confirm members of the Finance Board and Board of Elections and Membership. The assembly also elected new members to both.

Adrianna Kam became chair of the Board of Elections and Membership after the student assembly re-confirmed her. Dan Hernandez was also re-confirmed to his spot on the board, but said mentioned his schedule as a reason for not continuing in that role.

Published on February 18, 2014 at 3:32 am

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum