New constitution takes effect The Student Activities Council elected eight members to serve on its new Executive Committee last night, formally implementing the SAC constitution passed at the last meeting. College senior Jorge Leon, College junior Allison O'Brien, College sophomores Adena Galinsky, Nhung Tran and Kevin Canete, College freshman Debby Posner, Nursing sophomore Mark Corcoran and Engineering junior Paul Wilder were all elected to the committee. The ninth committee member will be Undergraduate Assembly Treasurer and College sophomore Steve Schorr, as per UA and SAC constitution rules. As a result of the newly accepted constitution, the organization is no longer divided into SAC Finance and SAC Steering branches. Instead, it will be led by the new executive committee. The newly elected committee members said they are eager to help change SAC through implementation of the new constitution. "Now is the chance to iron out the problems," O'Brien said. "This is going to become a more personal system." Tran said she agreed. "SAC has become too much of a personal insult against each other," she said. "That is not what SAC is about." And Posner said she was impressed by the resources students have through student groups. "I'd like to be a part of the board that is energizing those groups," she said. But the enthusiasm of the meeting was marred by dissent over the outgoing Finance Committee's funding recommendations, making an otherwise smooth transition controversial. Although Finance was advised that SAC had $35,000 in contingency funds, the Committee approached the body with recommendations totaling $120,000. Allocating that amount would have required dipping into the $245,000 fund of unspent SAC allocations which was discovered this fall. Outgoing Chairperson Graham Robinson, a College senior, explained that the newly passed constitution suggested spending this money gradually to fund special projects that would benefit many students and which SAC could not normally afford. Even if the money should be pooled among the different groups, the recommendations did not divide the extra money fairly, Robinson said. "These allocations are to 49 groups," he added. "If we are going to open up SAC funds to just divide among groups, then at least all groups should have a chance to come and request funds, which they did not. "I don't think these are a good set of recommendations," Robinson added. He explained that certain groups received phone calls telling them to make financial requests at last night's meeting because this would be a month in which money was available. Robinson claimed some of these groups called to ask him if "something fishy was going on." Schorr also said he received similar phone calls from groups asking why the Finance Committee told them to ask for money. Several SAC members at the meeting said they thought the phone calls were Finance's last jab at the Steering Committee it had often fought with. As a result of the confusion, the body voted to hold over all requests until its next meeting. Robinson said he was sorry about the hold, because it might hurt groups who actually need the money. But he said the important funds were mixed in with "frivolous requests."
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