Jose Gonzalez-Campelo/The Cougar
On Nov. 4, the Student Government Association convened for an emergency special session to address the revisions made by Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Paul Kittle to the Student Fees Advisory Committee.
In the meeting, SGA claimed that Kittle illegally revised the bylaws of SFAC without the committee’s approval.
However, according to Kittle, SFAC is a university level committee and does not have to follow any SGA bylaws, only Texas legislative law.
Kittle would not need any approval from the committee to revise SFAC bylaws.
Kittle’s Revisions
Kittle said he revised the bylaws in order to create a more efficient SFAC.
“We started the document in spring and drafted them over the summer. I reviewed them and shared them with the SFAC,” Kittle said. “There was a lot of responsibility placed on the student chair like scheduling rooms, catering and arranging meetings. So that’s something we got done over the summer to make things simpler.”
Kittle reduced the document’s length from 62 pages to four and shortened the budget worksheet. This raised alarms for several senators on the committee, including Sen. Yusuf Kadi.
“There were some proposed budget changes by the administration, where the previous version of the budget had very detailed categories of expenses from where student service fee funds were being utilized,” Sen. Kadi said. “This new one has about three or four categories. This is nowhere near enough information to understand where funding is being spent.”
In the meeting, senators alleged that Kittle had also reduced the number of student senators on the committee from three to two, however, Kittle denies this.
The number of student senators on the committee is set by the SGA itself and has not changed, according to Kittle.
Kittle made changes to the available data with guidance from the Office of Student Business Services.
“The budget provided was shortened. The guiding question was, ‘how do we make this as easy as possible but still informative.’ So that’s the model we came up with.” Kittle said.
Kittle stressed that the SGA had numerous chances to ask questions regarding his budget changes but said he received none.
SGA Drafts Resolution in Response
Sen. Jesus Nieto motioned for the special session to address these revisions. He authored a resolution, “Disapproval of the Revisions of SFAC Bylaws by the Vice President of Student Affairs,” which was introduced for a first read.
“Dr. Paul Kittle, gave a directive to Donell Young, Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students, to change the approved SFAC bylaws without internal committee approval or consultation,” Nieto said.
The resolution was sponsored by 14 other SGA members. The SFAC’s original documents required both the committee’s approval for document revision and Kittle’s approval.
“It was revealed very recently by Dr. Kittle that he had decided to unilaterally strip and rewrite SFAC bylaws how he pleased,” said Sen. Kadi. “It’s important to note, he doesn’t have that power. Dr. Kittle cannot change the bylaws without the Committee’s approval.”
Under the original SFAC bylaws, any new changes need a majority of the committee to vote, Kadi said.
However, SFAC does not answer to SGA’s laws, and any revisions made to its protocols does not require committee approval, and must follow Texas legislative law, Kittle said.
Accusations of Undemocratically Installed SFAC Chair
The current interim chair of SFAC Sarah Khan, was accused of illegally being put into SFAC as an interim member by Arriaga after failing a democratic vote.
According to SGA Bylaws, Title VIII: Student Fees Advisory Committee, Article 3: Appointment of Student Members, Clause 4, interim members may only be appointed by the SGA president after being requested by the SFAC Chair.
Allegedly, the previous chair did not request any interim members, so several SGA senators viewed her appointment as illegitimate.
“A person that was not democratically elected by the student government is now the chair of the committee that’s responsible for $23 million dollars of student fees,” Sen. Nieto said.
Kittle emphasized that since SFAC is a university level committee, it does not follow the SGA bylaws.
“The student body president has the right to place interim members until the SGA acts,” Kittle said.
Khan continued to serve on SFAC despite the accusations.
“The new bylaws are an administrative action to take a sledgehammer to the committee and destroy any ability that they have to push for change or voice student interests.” Sen. Kadi said.
