The Student Assembly convened for a special two-hour meeting last night to discuss procedural matters and debate a motion to change the Student Activity Finance Commission (SAFC) policy on honorariums.
“I wanted people to be aware of what each committee member was doing,” said President Uzo Asonye ’02. “A lot of things surprised people,” he added. “It got things on people’s radar screens that they were not previously aware of.”
After talking about their committee projects, the S.A. members debated a motion dealing with the compensation of speakers or lecturers.
The current policy requires student groups to submit a letter of intent to the S.A in order to compensate a speaker or lecturer with $500 or more of SAFC funding.
The assembly decided to change the policy by requiring students to submit a letter of intent for any amount of compensation to honorariums. They also agreed to reduce the allocation by 30 percent for late requests.
The changes were made to “make sure [students’] money was spent the right way,” Asonye said, citing a loophole some groups had found: they could avoid submitting a letter of intent and still receive S.A. approval for $499 — the maximum amount permitted without a letter.
Other proposed changes to the policy, concerning compensation for relatives of students and recent graduates, were tabled for tomorrow’s regular weekly meeting.
Archived article by Heather Schroeder