Editor's Note: This story will be updated after Monday's legislative session. A full version of the article with more information on the accounting error will appear later this week.
The 47th Legislature of the Student Government Association (SGA) will vote on a bill today that, if passed, will establish a new budgeting process. The legislation would eliminate fixed percentages for University-wide organizations under the Student Activity Fee split and create a new SGA business office data entry specialist position.
In eliminating the fixed percentages under the fee split for University-wide organizations - which include the Student Programming Council (SPC), Media Council, Outdoor Emory and Club Sports - these groups would have to apply for supplemental funding on a need-based system instead of receiving a fixed amount at the beginning of each semester.
This bill coincides with the discovery and subsequent restoration of an accounting error that SGA has been making for the past two years that overfunded the University-wide organizations. However, multiple sources within SGA, including SGA Vice President of Communications and College sophomore Jon Darby, have said the bill is unrelated to this accounting error.
The error occurred when Emory switched to new software to manage finances called PeopleSoft Compass, according to College senior Calvin Lee, SGA's vice president for finance. Some of the data input that had been completed automatically under the previous system had to be done manually with Compass, Darby said.
Funding for University-wide organizations as well as the 12 divisional councils that fall under SGA – which represent specific Emory schools, such as College Council and BBA Council – comes from the $89 Student Activity Fee that students pay as part of their tuition each semester.
Meanwhile, the proposed data entry specialist position in the SGA office would require each divisional council to receive 1 percent less of what they currently receive in order to increase the funds in the SGA Salaries account.
"Everybody would be making an investment into the betterment of the University," Darby said of the proposed funding reductions.
This part of the bill does not require a change to the SGA monetary code and would therefore take effect next semester if the bill passes today.
Eliminating Fixed Percentages
Should the bill pass, the four University-wide organizations would receive funding by submitting bills that would have to undergo SGA Finance Committee review and receive majority votes from the SGA legislature during two consecutive legislative sessions. This is identical to the normal SGA legislative process for funding organizations.
According to the bill, two primary motivations prompted the potential changes to SGA finances, the first of which pertains to the elimination of University-wide fee split percentages.
Large disparities exist in the amount of money University-wide divisions spend from their budgets each year, the bill states. For instance, the bill cites an unspecified University-wide division that spent 40.6 percent of its budget one year, and then spent more than its portion of the fee split – using 110.7 percent of its total budget – during another year.
Moreover, SGA has noticed a disparity in how much each University-wide division spends of its fee split portion. The bill cites one division that spent 50.4 percent of its total budget and another that spent 122.4 percent of its budget the same year.
While this change in financial operations would require an amendment to the SGA monetary code, the creation of the data entry specialist position would simply change the SGA bylaws.
College senior Max Farina, Media Council president, and College junior Ben Sinvany, representing student literary magazine The Emory Pulse, wrote in a recent Wheel editorial that they oppose the proposed change.
"In light of cutting the Department of Visual Arts and the Journalism program, Media Council is now more important than ever," they wrote. "By centralizing the allocation of money, SGA is consolidating its power and stripping University-wide organizations of their autonomy. We are writing this appeal to oppose this bill as it stands."
The Proposed Data Entry Specialist Position
Discussions to change the budgeting process and hire a data entry specialist began in March, according to Darby.
The additional position was proposed in order to alleviate the burden on treasurers of student clubs. Treasurers have complained that the skills required to perform tasks, understand computer systems and keep track of clubs' finances are not retained after the initial training process, according to Appendix C of the bill. Students have also said information about the financial state of their clubs has in the past not always been readily available.
The Division of Campus Life provided recommendations to SGA in a report titled "Review of the Financial Process for Student Groups," in which Roland Witter, Campus Life's accounting manager, wrote, "I have concluded that the issues" SGA is facing in managing its finances "are complex and numerous."
"Beyond keeping track of their student group's finances, and giving their approval to expenditures, there is a lot that treasurers must learn and do in order to gain access to the Emory Express and Compass computer systems," Witter wrote. "A large amount of information is disseminated during Treasurer's Training. Much of it is not used immediately, and may not be retained by students."
An additional $19,000 in the SGA Salaries account would be required to pay a data entry specialist, causing the proposed reduction in funding for the 12 graduate and undergraduate divisions. The SGA Salaries account currently contains $60,000 per semester.
In order for the monetary code to be changed, a separate bill must be written that proposes an amendment. However, before the legislature can hear the bill, it must be advertised to the student population sufficiently to the satisfaction of the SGA vice president for finance and speaker of the legislature.
This means the part of the bill that eliminates University-wide organizations' fee split percentages and establishes a new system by which these organizations could acquire funding could only take effect after the monetary code has been changed.
Aftermath of the Accounting Error
As a result of the accounting error, this semester, Media Council had to pay SGA back about $34,000; Club Sports, about $17,000; Outdoor Emory Organization, nearly $7,500; and SPC, almost $21,900.
Lee said University-wide organizations' leadership from last year and the SGA Business Office agreed upon these numbers in the spring.
While the former three organizations were given one year to pay back the funds to SGA, SPC has been given three years because it receives more than half of the funds from the University-Wide Fee Split distribution.
Farina, however, said this semester, the need to pay back SGA left Media Council dipping into its executive account to ensure that each of the 16 media groups that fall underneath it obtained the proper amount of funding. He said the Media Council has been unable to host certain events and bring speakers to campus as a result of the error and subsequent repayment.
Executive Editor Jordan Friedman contributed reporting.
– By Rupsha Basu
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