Student Assembly Elects Three Vice Presidents

Members of the Student Assembly held internal elections yesterday to elect three vice presidents as well as members of the appropriations committee and the SAFC liaison.
Nikhil Kumar ’11 was elected vice president for internal operations, Chris Basil ’10 was elected vice president for finance, Vincent Andrews ’11 was elected vice president for public relations and Justin Min ’11 was elected the SAFC liaison.
The members elected to the appropriations committee were Adam Nicoletti ’12 (CALS), Adam Raveret ’12 (Arts and Sciences), Zach Glasser ’12 (Engineering), Mike DeLucia ’12 (Engineering) and Kristan Welch ’10 (Human Ecology).
On April 6, elections will continue as more positions will be filled including the liaison to the provost, two University Assembly board delegates, employee assembly liaison, liaison to the vice president for student and academic services, GPSA liaison, faculty senate liaison and the Slope Day Programming Board liaison.
Rammy Salem ’10, incoming president of the S.A., noted that the executive-board was “senior-heavy” and that when electing the members for the appropriations committee, the S.A. members tried to get new members more experience in order to ensure a “smooth transition” after the next school year.
According to Andrews, “the determining factor” in electing the vice presidents seemed to be their experience. Especially with the upcoming by-line funding year, many on the S.A. felt the vice president for finance should be a candidate who had had experience on the S.A. as well as experience with the by-line funding process. Basil has been an S.A. member since his freshman year and served on the appropriations committee during the last by-line funding year.
By-line funding occurs every two years. The appropriations committee determines the student activities fee and then makes that recommendation to the S.A. If the S.A. approves that recommendation, it will pass it along to President David Skorton for approval, who will then pass it along to the Board of Trustees for approval.
With the current budget cuts, the University is reducing funding to many of the by-line funded groups. Basil believes that it is the S.A.’s position to do everything in its power to help those groups get the necessary funding.
However, with the current economic recession, Basil expressed his belief that he and the appropriations committee need to use “as much fiscal constraint and fiscal responsibility as possible.” He noted that any decision the S.A. would make to increase the student activities fee would put a strain on students and their families. Effectively, Basil said, an increase in the student activities fee is an increase in tuition.