The more than $200,000 budget for the Association of Student Governments is apparently not enough, given the rate at which the organization is spending.
The problem stems from overruns in the travel budget. So it was a little unorthodox that the organization’s response was to eliminate the associate vice president for finance and administration position: one of the officers who oversees finances.
ASG leans heavily on its travel budget — almost as heavily as it leans on its stipends for officers. Delegates have to travel around the state to meet. It’s just the nature of the organization.
If anything, this fund should never be budgeted improperly. It’s a recurring cost and there are few excuses for why ASG should ever be unprepared to cover it fully.
ASG President Atul Bhula says he can’t rationalize a reason to keep two officers overseeing finances. To be frank, we can’t rationalize striking one from the constitution as a measure to stem budget-related problems unrelated to stipends.
The editorial board has always been a champion of trimming ASG’s administrative costs. And if the chief financial officer alone is enough to manage the budget, then we support the move on those grounds.
But the current measure effectively raids one fund to make up the shortfall in another, without addressing the underlying reasons for going over budget. It can’t be considered a permanent solution, especially since one of the positions eliminated is meant to provide some measure of budgetary oversight.
The removal of the associate vice president for finance and administration should soon be followed by a solution that actually addresses the problems with the travel budget.
