Curator seeks fees report
Groups overseeing student organizations on all four UM system campuses will report all approved and rejected spending for the past two academic years on Monday to the Board of Curators.
Published April 7, 2006
Groups that oversee student organizations on all four UM system campuses will report all financial decisions for the past two academic years on Monday to the UM system Board of Curators.
The reports are in response to a request from Curator David Wasinger, who asked at the board's March meeting for a thorough report of student organizations' spending.
Wasinger asked Cathy Scroggs, vice chancellor for student affairs, for the information at the March meeting.
But Board President Angela Bennett said Wasinger's request would not mean the board would monitor student organizations' spending closer.
"Our authority is a governing authority," Bennett said. "To decide about funding for each organization is to micromanage. We do not make decisions as to which specific organization gets certain funding."
At the meeting, Wasinger used artist Andres Serrano's visit to MU last fall as an example of misused student fees. Wasinger referenced Serrano's photographs, including one of a figurine submerged in a vat of urine, called "Piss Discus," which was on display at the Museum of Art and Archaeology.
Wasinger also requested a list of all the organizations that had been denied student funds for projects and visiting speakers.
Scroggs said groups that did not receive funds normally weren't rejected because of subject matter.
"The ORG (Organizations Resource Group) committee screens every request that comes through," Scroggs said. "They deny allocations not for content but mostly because the student organization didn't give us enough information."
Bennett did not attend the discussion held at Rolla meeting in which Wasinger requested the report, but said she has not seen any examples of misspent student funds.
Maria Curtis, the student representative to the Board of Curators, agreed with Bennett, and said she felt student organizations have the right to allocate money. She said distributing funds for specific groups was not the board's job.
Taylor McKinney, ORG vice chairwoman of administration, also said she believed the group spent money wisely.
"We're coming up with new policies that will help," McKinney said.
McKinney said ORG was instituting several new additions to their budget approval process. The new policies would require students to submit more information on guest speakers before receiving funding.
McKinney said the new changes were not in response to Wasinger's requests.
