Issue date: 3/31/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Ethan Moore

Due to the repercussions of miscommunication between the outgoing Student Senate and the College's Business Office, some inactive clubs and organizations on campus may soon find their business office accounts empty.

Before spring break, Senate had voted to allocate the money in its discretionary fund to different clubs and organizations on campus. The discretionary fund holds money from the Student Activity Fee that is not allocated and set aside to benefit new and current organizations that have special needs arise throughout the year.

Junior Lije Cunningham, outgoing Senate Treasurer, had received an e-mail from the Business Office stating Senate's discretionary fund had a "remaining balance of $16,469.43 that is extra after the allocation. This is due to having more students contributing an activity fee […]." Cunningham interpreted the e-mail to mean that this approximate $16,000 was to be added to the $12,000 that he already knew to be in Senate's discretionary fund, so he proceeded to allocate additional money from what he thought was $28,000 total fund. However, the incoming Senate soon discovered that $16,000 was the total amount available in the discretionary fund, meaning that funds the outgoing Senate had promised were no longer there.

Upon hearing of the problem, Cunningham requested from the Business Office a list of clubs that have been inactive for over one semester or those that had not made a transaction through the Business Office for over one semester. Using that list, he began to retract their money to fulfill the funds that Senate had already promised to other active clubs and organizations.

"However," Cunningham said, "no money will be taken from active clubs that plan to make use of it."

Cunningham said that he had hoped his misunderstanding the e-mail was not the problem because, "taking money back from clubs was the worst-case scenario. Unfortunately, that's what happened. I take full blame for it, and I'm sorry."

Sophomore Jacob Williams, incoming Senate Treasurer, said that better communication would have prevented the problem.

"[Senate] probably should have asked for clarification, but it shouldn't directly affect any students at all," he said.

Another problem Senate faced was not only having to fulfill promised allocations, but also ensuring that Senate would have enough money left in its discretionary fund for the rest of the year. However, Cunningham said, everything should work out.

Continued...

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