During the latest Student Association election, there was a great deal of talk about the finance committee and accusations that it was not fully transparent.
I respectfully disagree. However, as the new SA Senate finance chair, I would like to change this perception. My number one priority this year will be to increase transparency and outreach. It is important that student organization leaders – and all students for that matter – do not think of me and the rest of finance committee as detached tools who sit in a Marvin Center office crunching numbers. We work hard getting to know the great things student organizations at GW do, but I would like to do an even better job of this next year.
A priority for the finance committee next year will be encouraging student groups to collaborate to maximize funding efficiency. The funding pool will be staying stagnant, but requests will likely increase. There are many like-minded student organizations doing repetitive programming that could come together to save money and bring more people to a given event. For organizations that cannot do this, finding alternate sources of funding will be important.
The town halls the finance committee held this year illuminated ways to do this, and I will be hosting another one this fall. This sort of dialogue between the finance committee and student organizations is important, because we should not be telling you to seek alternate sources of funding without helping you do so first.
I will make appearances at a variety of student programming events and meetings, and will be encouraging members of the finance committee to do the same.
Most importantly, please make it a point to reach out to us. We’re more than happy to meet with student leaders to discuss programming, finances and gaining outside funding and opportunities to work with other student organizations.
This is not an exhaustive list of goals. If there are other tasks you think should be on our agenda, reach out to me. The finance committee works for the students, and we want to be as accessible to them as we can be.
Alex Mizenko, a junior majoring in public health, is the Student Association Finance Chair for the 2012-2013 academic year.
