Warren College Student Council President Alyssa Wing has discovered an A.S. funding discrepancy that suggests the governing body may be violating its own constitution.

Wing first found the discrepancy when she began to research the source of funding for her college council budget. She, along with Warren Dean of Affairs Paul DeWine, looked into the history of college funding and learned that a 1985 A.S. referendum mandated that the council must give each college council 50 cents of the activity fees paid by each student in the college. For example, if a Warren College student pays $20 in activity fees to A.S. Council, 50 cents of it must go back to Warren College Student Council.

Wing said that UCSD students voted to increase this amount from 50 cents to 65 cents in 1985. However, starting in the 2008-09 school year, A.S. Council stopped following the rules of this referendum. Wing said this is because the council was restructured and started funding student orgs instead of funding on a per-college basis.

“A.S. is not funding student councils and the only way to revoke that referendum is to run another referendum that would overturn the past one,” Wing said. “We have two referendums that have passed but we are not necessarily following them.”

Wing plans to charge a  committee next week to investigate why this discrepancy happened and how to move forward.

“A referendum is legally binding,” A.S. President Wafa Ben Hassine said. “So unless the committee finds another referendumt that overturns the first one, we must abide by the rules and fund student councils.”

Wing said that, contingent on the committee’s discoveries, the current executive budget may need to be amended.

“If we do find that this referendum is valid and still exists, we have to reevaluate our budget,” she said.  “Not looking for an immediate [solution] but I do want future A.S. councils to realize there is some ties to college councils and that we may be violating our own rules.”

She stressed that this cause is important for the council’s integrity.

“I feel as though accountability and invisibility and transparency are a lot of big words thrown out there, but how can A.S. be an accountable organization if we’re not even following our constitution, of the things that have been passed in the years before us,” she said.

Additional reporting by Angela Chen.