The Student Government Association unanimously passed a bill to establish a more fiscally responsible SGA during its meeting Wednesday. The bill came about as a response to an early piece of legislation that caused division among members of the Senate.
‘After the last meeting, we got together, and we essentially went through the entire code and we fixed it,’ SGA President Kenneth Fomunung said. ‘We took a look at the actual fiscal procedures as outlined in the article. We went through areas that were vague areas that were essentially outdated.’
Fomunung said the SGA focused on transparency and fiscal accountability. Those involved went over the SGA bylaws that address financial issues and did an overhaul.
‘This overhaul to the financial code is critical because we have a responsibility to students to use their money wisely, especially in these trying economic times,’ CLASS Sen. Taylor Kilroy said.’
Fomunung said going through the code was’ ‘a learning experience for us to figure out our code.’
The SGA established that any expenditure of more than $300 would have to be approved by the president and the Senate.’
The figure was chosen because $300 ‘is a number that is worth looking at, worth questioning’ Fomunung said.
Kilroy and Fomunung said that passing this bill was important because now they can take it to the Tuition and Fee Committee when the SGA asks them for transparency.
‘It will be a great benefit to us during the tuition and fees discussion, because we can show that the SGA is committed to transparency and financial accountability,’ Kilroy said.
The SGA also unanimously passed two resolutions and a college council constitution. The first of these was a resolution in support of the Student Savings Club.
The Student Savings Club is a program that would save students money by getting them discounts at places they frequently visit. The program costs $1,750 and would be partially funded by the SGA and the Student Government Fun Run/Walk for Student Savings.
The second resolution approved by the SGA addressed the MetroRail on the UH campus. Members of the Faulty Senate, Staff Council and the SGA authored the resolution.
At-Large Sen. Sean Tarver, who sponsored the resolution, said its message was to let administrators know that the SGA wants communication between the University and the Metropolitan Transit Authority to be stronger.
‘Metro has been a little lacking in communication,’ Tarver said. ‘I don’t know if it is that they are not talking to us, or we are not trying too hard.’
The constitution for the College of Technology College Council was also approved. This is the second college council constitution approved by the 46th administration; the first was for the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management.
Technology Sen. David Harden said the constitution provides an open forum for technology students to present their problems to the administrators in the college.
Political science freshman Jeff Syptak and political science senior Laura Bobrick were unanimously appointed to the Student Fees Advisory Committee.
