From the Cornell Assemblies
The Student Assembly Finance Committee (SAFC) is a committee of the Student Assembly. It maintains considerable autonomy, and it is responsible for electing its own executive board. The SAFC recruits, trains, and monitors its own membership, and new members are confirmed each semester by the full Student Assembly.
The SAFC is one of the most public instruments of the Student Assembly. The nature of its responsibility places it under considerable scrutiny. Concerns with the SAFC include its complicated process for receiving funding that often leaves some groups without their full budgetary requests.
While hundreds of organizations navigate the SAFC’s funding process without concern each semester, some organizations continue to bring valuable insight to the SAFC and the Student Assembly by pointing out inconsistencies in our system. Recent concerns include incorrect information being provided, on limited occasions, to organizations by SAFC commissioners. Some organizations describe the President and Treasurers’ (P&T) Handbook as being too complicated and unclear. The Student Assembly recognizes that the SAFC must continue to respond to these concerns, and it must be prepared to provide all available resources to assist in its efforts to improve.
The SAFC is currently under the extremely able leadership of Jack Castle ‘09 and Taylor Mulherin ‘09. Jack and Taylor remain committed to providing a complete and accurate assessment of the SAFC and improving its weaknesses in both the short term and the long term.
Working with Jack and Taylor, the Student Assembly is committed to reevaluating its role in the SAFC’s funding process. The Student Assembly must ensure that its members understand the SAFC’s funding process, too, in order to most appropriately rule on appeals brought before the full Student Assembly. Lastly, the Student Assembly and the SAFC must ensure the warm working relationship between the two bodies; something that has often been overlooked by past executive boards of the organizations.
As there will never be sufficient funds to provide for all organizations at their full request, the criteria being used to evaluate organizations must be as clear, concise, and transparent as possible.
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Page last modified on April 08, 2008, at 01:49 PM