William Tunick, Tom Chapman and Garo Bournoutian are all quality candidates who bring bright and innovative ideas and a hard line for following the rules when it comes to spending students’ money. The Guardian endorses Tunick to serve as the vice president finance on the A.S. Council, which annually distributes over $1 million of student money.
Like the other candidates, Tunick is opposed to suspending council bylaws when dealing with funding requests, something frequently practiced by his fellow senators this year. Tunick’s past actions and proposals would solidify and reform the use of bylaws.
Tunick does not waver on tough issues. He has voted against circumventing bylaws — not merely abstaining from the vote, when these issues have arisen in council.
Tunick proposes changing bylaws to allow for the funding of more events. Chapman favors a system where a waiver form obtained for the funding would allow for a bylaw suspension. The Guardian favors a change in a rule if it is outdated rather than continually hesitating on issues with a waiver.
Tunick proposes placing all financial forms on the Web to make them more accessable to students and student organizations that wish to obtain funding. He is also in favor of placing budgets on the Web for students to see where their money is spent. Making A.S. finances more transparent to the student body is essential in establishing trust and communication between the council and the students its members get paid to serve.
In making the A.S. Council’s finances autonomous by purchasing insurance as opposed to having a large general reserve, Tunick plans to take a detailed look at whether this is truly the best idea. He will only advocate the switch to financial autonomy in the long run — a timeframe of around a decade — if this will maintain the financial viability of the council’s funds.
If elected, Tunick — like all candidates — plans to increase the ties between his office, student groups and the Student Organization Funding Advisory Board. But he plans to use the knowledgeable assistants in his office to work with groups instead of having the focus on clerical duties. He is correct in realizing that one person cannot possibly keep in touch with the over 300 (and rising) number of student groups that ask the council for funds.
Tunick, like his competition, plans to increase spending on festivals such as Sun God, as well as increasing the profit for the A.S. Council through its various services and enterprises.
This position requires experience in the financial sector of government. Tunick has this from his role on the current A.S. finance committee as a junior senator from Marshall college, as well as his past work at the college level.
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