SAC Finance chair alleges misconduct

Student Activities Council Finance Committee Chairperson David Shapiro has alleged that SAC's Steering Committee -- and more specifically Chairperson Graham Robinson -- has violated the SAC constitution multiple times. Shapiro, a College and Wharton junior, said yesterday that Robinson and his committee have infringed on powers reserved for the SAC body and Finance Committee. But Robinson, a College senior, said he and the Steering Committee have acted within their rights. "The SAC body is authorized to overturn the constitution," Robinson said. "Steering and the chair can, in an emergency, do anything the body can do." According to Shapiro, the constitutional problems began shortly after elections last spring when SAC was allocating money for campus groups. "Because procedures weren't being followed, we ran out of funds for fall [1995] allocation early and had to tap into spring [1996] funds," Shapiro said. "Graham was advised of this at the time and basically said 'Whoops, it won't happen again'." Robinson explained that the SAC body, not Steering, voted to overturn the constitution to open next year's funds. He added that this is not uncommon. Shapiro also alleged misconduct in the handling of the Philomathean Society's request for emergency funding earlier this year. He explained that although Finance agreed to recommend that SAC fund Philo, Steering allocated more than the group's emergency necessitated. Shapiro said that when Finance tried to reevaluate the extra funding allocated to the group, Robinson told Philo not to cooperate with Finance. Robinson agreed that the situation could have been handled differently, but added that by the time Finance had found an alternative, the funds had already been allocated and Steering did not want to set a precedent of taking away funds from student groups. "It was a case of a recommendation from Finance which we did not follow," Robinson said. He explained that Finance is merely an advisory body that is intended to lessen the research work of the SAC general assembly. He added that its recommendations do not have to be followed by the body or Steering. Robinson said he told Philo not to cooperate with Finance's requests for further meetings because the Finance Committee was overstepping its jurisdiction. Shapiro also complained about Steering's decision to postpone this year's Finance Committee elections, which must be held by January according to the SAC Constitution. After hearing from Financial Administrator for Student Activities Lynn Moller that there would be no elections before January, Finance passed a resolution earlier this week requesting that the elections take place this month, according to Shapiro. Robinson explained that elections had been planned for January, but no one was interested in running except for those already on Finance. Robinson said he sent a letter to SAC representatives in December, asking if anyone objected to the election being postponed pending the results of the vote to restructure SAC. He added that no one expressed dissent. At last month's SAC meeting, Robinson presented a proposal to the body, outlining an extensive reform plan sponsored by Steering. If passed, the plan would create one executive body, as opposed to the two that currently exist. Shapiro said he is also upset that the due date for SAC's budget allocations to student groups has been set for March 4, even though Finance decided it should be earlier. When Shapiro sent e-mail to Moller asking for the date to be changed, Moller refused. She said yesterday that her refusal stemmed from the possibility of SAC reforms which would eliminate the Finance Committee and transfer its workload to another body. "Because of the possibility of reforming SAC, we couldn't start this process [budget allocations] with one committee and finish with another," she explained. The SAC body will meet on January 31 to determine the fate of the reform plan and of SAC Finance.