SAC elects new finance board

Members of the Student Activities Council decided their own financial destinies when they elected four new members to the SAC Finance Committee at the second SAC meeting of the year Thursday. College sophomore Michael Graves was re-elected to a second term on the committee, and Wharton sophomore David Browne, College sophomore David West and Wharton junior Dipak Patel will begin their terms on the committee today. The transition of boards began yesterday with a noon brunch at Kelly and Cohen's. The Finance Committee is a seven-member branch of SAC that makes recommendations for allocations of SAC money to the nearly 200 student groups already recognized by the body. SAC Steering Committee member You-Lee Kim ran the hour-long introduction of candidates to the SAC body. Most SAC representatives, however, seemed more interested in getting the meeting over with quickly than in figuring out the candidates' positions. In addition to taking questions from SAC members, all eight candidates answered the question, "The Student Activities Council has a fixed amount of money available and more requests for it than funds. What do you see as the most important criteria to consider when allocating money to organizations?" They also were interviewed for 20 minutes by SAC Steering Committee members earlier this week and given ratings based on their knowledge of SAC guidelines, previous time commitments, interpersonal skills and public speaking, SAC Chairperson Brandon Fitzgerald said at the meeting. SAC Steering gave each candidate between one and four stars. Members of SAC apparently trusted the evaluations of the executive board because the four candidates they elected each received the highest number of stars. Fitzgerald said he does not think the inexperience of the Finance Committee will be a problem for the SAC body because the new committee members seem competent. "Everyone we interviewed was qualified," said Fitzgerald, a College senior. "In past years we haven't had such a high quality of candidates." He also said that the three members already on the committee have gone through the process of allocating SAC money to student groups at least once, and the new members will be helped by SAC's advisors. "Advisors are there to help guide the committee, and I have great confidence in the advisors," Fitzgerald said. The new committee members will replace former Finance Committee Chairperson Grace Esteban and Wharton senior Aron Schwartz, whose terms are over, and Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson Jeff Lichtman, who will sit on SAC Steering Committee instead. Esteban will become a SAC representative for the American Marketing Association, she said after the meeting. Fitzgerald said that a new Finance Committee chairperson will be elected Thursday when the new committee meets for the first time. At the three-hour meeting, the SAC body also recognized Alpha Phi Omega, a national community service fraternity, which requested recognition but not money. It also voted on routine re-recognitions of seven student groups which had lost funding for infractions of the SAC bylaws.