UHR, GSS pass joint finance bill

Whether most students at Tech realize it or not, the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) policy is a document with a profound effect on their college experience since it oversees how the Student Government Association (SGA) funds for student organizations. Finally, in the culmination of a several-year long effort, a new edition of the policy was finally able to pass both the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) and the Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) on Tuesday.

Both branches of SGA share the responsibilities of allocating the Student Activity Fee. The new JFC policy lays out recommendations for the allocation of the fees.

SGA has been in the process of revising the JFC policy for the past three years in an attempt to clarify their funding process and increase equality and transparency within the organization.

Both houses spent much of last year working on the policy but were unable to reconcile their independently passed versions by the end of the spring.

The bylaws that were passed last spring specifically incorporate the new JFC policy, and it has been a prerogative of both chambers of Student Government to pass the JFC policy so that the bylaws can become more effective.

The new bylaws included an amendment stating that all financial allocations by SGA must adhere to JFC policy. In order to go against policy, the legislative bodies must go through a separate majority vote to override policy, in addition to passing the bill in question.

The policy itself deals with both joint and non-joint Student Activity Fee allocations. Both the graduate and undergraduates vote on Joint Allocations, and the funds requested can be drawn from two different accounts, the Capital Outlay and the Prior Year account.

Non-Joint allocations are funded by only one legislative branch. These funds are in limited accounts designated for special projects and initiatives of SGA, and are drawn from the Undergraduate Legislative Reserve (ULR) and the Graduate Legislative Reserve (GLR).

According to the newly passed policy, student organizations may receive funding in the forms of an annual budget and/or written requests for funds in the forms of bills. Organizations must submit their budgets for the next fiscal year in October of each year. At this point the Joint Finance Committee Chair, also the Vice President of Finance, begins reviewing the proposed budgets, and the JFC Chair present the budget to the legislative bodies in the seventh week of the spring semester each year.

Based on the initial review of the budget SGA determines the next year's Student Activity Fee and begins the process of budgetary planning. The JFC policy also defines what may and may not be funded by the Student Activity Fees. Events with alcohol present, food, capital expenditures, gifts, FASET materials, and recruitment activities are all prohibited.

During the UHR meeting this past week there was debate over one of the prohibited items. Prohibited allocations include religious activities, which are defined by the JFC policy as activities which support religious worship and proselytizing.

The debate was centered on the inclusion of anti-religious groups, such as atheist groups, in this definition; while they are not religiously devout, they are similarly focused on religion.

However, the UHR halted the debate on the grounds that it was improper, as Georgia law prohibits the inclusion of atheist groups in the definition of "church" as it is used in its separation of church and state clauses.

The JFC policy was amended this week in both houses. The GSS amended the policy to include a definition of emergency capital expenditure. This definition outlined unforeseeable costs that a student organization can request funding for, such as theft of organization property.

There was a second amendment, dealing with the enactment ratio required for the policy to become effective. The original language called for a .60 enactment ratio with a 25% affirmative vote in each chamber. Enactment ratio is the number of legislators in each chamber divided by the percentage of the student activity fee that each chamber represents. The policy was amended to state "at least .60" for clarification purposes.

In order to amend the JFC policy the minimum .60 enactment ratios must be met, as well as majority approval in each individual chamber.

The recent amendments to the JFC policy will soon be available on the SGA website, sga.gatech.edu, and the full voting record will be available on the new Online Bill System at www.gtsga.com.