By Michael Walsh
Last semester, the Student Government Association explored but dropped a motion that would disallow club officers from also being voting senators.
This semester, the same conflict of interest that sparked initial debate is still present within SGA.
“I can totally see how it’s corrupt and sometimes it totally is,” said SGA President Matt Vekakis. “I think that not having senators who are presidents of clubs would be the best idea. In a way it is kind of corrupt.”
According to Vekakis, this year’s SGA has a budget between $600,000 and $700,000. About $430,000 of that two semester total goes towards club budgets. All 36 voting members have a say in the disbursement of the money, which goes to everything from club budget contingency requests to the allocating of money into their own committees.
Currently, the SGA hosts a few senators who are also club presidents, including Ashley Foy, president of the German Club, and newly elected senator Liz Braun, who is the president of the Outing Club.
“Definitely as a student, I think it’s corrupt. It’s not ethical. It’s none of that,” said Vekakis, who was speaking on the possible image the conflict of interest presents, and not the specific senators themselves.
And while Vekakis feels that the conflict of interest presence isn’t right, he doesn’t see it changing within SGA just yet.
“I think in our world it would never really work, unfortunately,” said Vekakis. “In a perfect world, absolutely, there’s no doubt in my mind that that should be a rule but at least in our SGA, I think it would open a worse can of worms that way than letting them stay on.”
At the Oct. 6 SGA meeting, Senator Foy made a motion on behalf of her own club to allocate $3730 towards its budget. The motioned budget was considerably less than the initially requested and failed motion of $5,965 made by Senator Ben Haase, and after some discussion, Foy rescinded her motion. Later in the meeting, a motion to allocate the German Club $5,500 was made by Senator Haase. It was then passed by the senate with 16 yes votes, two no votes and four abstentions. Foy did abstain from all votes regarding her club.
“It’s unfortunate when some people bring up motions on behalf of their clubs and stuff like that and there’s nothing we can really do about it, especially when the senate wants to hear it and the senate actually votes and approves it,” said Vekakis. “Another thing that’s a problem, and I don’t blame them, but senators don’t like calling other senators out, because it’s kind of uncomfortable and tense. At senate you’ll probably never see someone be like ‘That’s corrupt, that’s unethical!’ The motion will probably always be heard, and whether it’s ethical or corrupt or not, I guess it doesn’t really matter, which stinks.”
Vekakis, who was chair of the constitution and by-laws ad hoc committee last semester where initial debate begun, recalled one of the main reasons as to why opponents of last semester’s motion were so strongly against it.
“Since a senate is the representatives of the student body, people felt like you can’t tell someone if they can run or they can’t run,” said Vekakis. “Everyone has an opportunity to run or not run, so there shouldn’t be a rule or law that bars anyone from running. So that was another argument. You can’t just bar them from running, and like I say it’s all about ethics, that’s what SGA really stands for.”
And according to Vekakis, last semester’s SGA was made up of a stronger presence for club presidents, which he attributed to the failure of the motion.
“I remember last semester there were a lot more club presidents than there are this semester, and that’s why it absolutely just tanked,” said Vekakis. “That’s where you see the ethics come out again. Take yourself out of your club position as a senator. As a student what’s better for the student body? And unfortunately I don’t think many people did that.”
For Vekakis, it all comes down to the responsibility of the individual senators.
“Be a big person, and realize that you’re holding these dual positions and that you know there’s a lot of power in that, and either abstain from voting when you’re talking about your club or be a senator when you’re at senate, not a club president.”