Following the passage of a Boston University Student Union amendment making the Student Election Commission independent at the last General Assembly meeting, the Student Activities Office reneged on promises that funding will come from the Dean of Students instead of Union, Union officials said.
About 30 students gathered at the Photonics Center Monday for Union’s second GA meeting of the semester, where Union passed a resolution against SAO’s decision and discussed a new structuring of student group representation.
Union officials said the decision came as a surprise and may jeopardize the goal of the amendment by making SEC still financially dependent on Union, and therefore not truly independent.
“It was a huge surprise when SAO approached us about it,” said Union President and College of Arts and Sciences and School of Management senior James Sappenfield.
Though the amendment passed at the last meeting does not specify the process of SEC funding, Sappenfield said the original proposal did.
SAO plans to take $2,000 from Union’s current balance of $6,387.81 to fund the election, which Sappenfield said could limit Union this semester and over the summer.
“This is kind of a shaky moment right now,” Sappenfield said. “It could negatively impact an executive board walking in over the summer.”
Union unanimously voted on a resolution to protest SAO’s funding decision, which Sappenfield said he will bring to a meeting with Student Activities Executive Director John Battaglino this week. He said he hopes to reach a resolution.
“It very well could . . . constrain the efforts of the Student Union either over the summer or at the General Assembly over the semester, or it may not constrain either,” Sappenfield said. “I’m looking forward to working cohesively with the Dean of Students . . . to get this problem resolved.”
Union Vice President and College of Engineering senior Mikhail Makalski said SEC had assured Union that the Dean of Students had agreed to the funding arrangement.
“They came to us with a very strong message that they want to be independent and the only way they can be an independent group is if they’re financially independent,” he said. “They also claimed that this had been vetted by the Dean of Students office. That was guaranteed to us.”
Makalski said SAO’s method of informing Union about the decision and its reversal surprised him.
“They didn’t tell us in a very official way. They told one of the board members . . . while they were there for separate business,” he said. ” I can understand that the university may or may not be in a very good financial situation right now [but] I do have a problem with them saying one thing then saying another thing the next day.”
Union Residence Life Committee Chairman and CAS sophomore Jared Kleiman, who co-wrote the amendment with SEC, also said he was surprised by the decision.
“My opinion is, it’s really sad to see this happen to the SEC, but from what we were told during the process is that DoS guaranteed funding to the SEC,” he said.
But SEC chairman and CAS senior Jeff Maynard said the SEC understands the decision and believes Union may have some responsibility to fund its own elections.
“The Student Election Commission understands why the money was removed from the Union budget,” Maynard said in an email. “The Student Union is provided a specific number of funds to fulfill their operations, one of these operations is their elections.”
Maynard said the choice makes sense in that money will not be taken from other student organizations, but the SEC had hoped for a different outcome and looks to resolve the issue soon.
“We did not know where the funding would come from until last week and had hoped that the money to fund the elections process would have come from a different source,” he said.
But Kleiman pointed in an email to Union’s Nov. 9 minutes, where Maynard is quoted as saying, “Money is coming from DoS. When money is divided to [Allocations Board], SU, that’s when we will be funded.”
Kleiman said SEC must operate independently of Union, which includes funding.
“This would compromise its request for independence and its effectiveness in providing fair and competitive elections in the future,” he said.
“This resolution shows that we’re not going to be funding SEC,” he said. “I have confidence that we will be having free and fair elections this year and it will not be on the Union’s dime.”
Union also discussed a steering initiative to restructure the way student groups are represented in Union after SAO’s elimination of consortia last year.
Director of Social Affairs and CAS sophomore Kathryn Fitzgerald said Union would instead select representatives from student groups around campus.
“We decided the best thing to do is to have these ten student groups, and they would take the place of the consortia,” she said.
Makalski said he thinks the system should change, but is concerned the representatives will not be elected like other members in Union.
“Union might be going through a restructuring where creating positions that are tied to an archaic system or are not tied to anything at all are equally bad solutions,” he said.
The initiative will be debated and voted on over the course of the next two GA meetings.
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