Stephen DeSalvo, a member of the Student Association Finance Board and general assembly, will run for comptroller of SA’s 56th session with the goal of bringing greater transparency and equality to the student fee.

DeSalvo, a sophomore chemical engineering and math major, said he has already begun working on this goal by working on the website Your Student Fee (yourstudentfee.syr.edu), which allows students to see where their money is being allocated. By expanding the existing site and creating more effective communication between the Finance Board and organizations, DeSalvo said he hopes to make financial information more accessible.

Another goal is to continue to improve SA’s existing roll-over policy, he said. Currently, the money organizations can roll over from the fall semester to the spring semester in their miscellaneous accounts, but the funds do not roll over from the spring to the fall. Because of this, the organizations lose their remaining balance as it goes back into the SA general fund to be dispersed the next year, DeSalvo said.

By changing this policy so that funds do roll over from spring to fall, the organizations could put their money to better use, and it would decrease the number of funding requests SA receives, DeSalvo said.

DeSalvo said he also wants to make distributing funds to the campus’ print media a fairer process by creating standards for grants. He said it is currently hard to judge the success of publications and which ones deserve more funding.

If elected, one amendment DeSalvo would like to make is a mandate that requires all SA members to undergo some form of fiscal training. Students frequently come into the SA office looking for information on special programming, budgets and contingency requests, but the office is not always staffed with a Finance Board members who can direct students on their financial inquiries.

‘It would be good for organizations to be able to come into the office and know they can speak with anyone because, as of right now, SA members are generally not knowledgeable,’ DeSalvo said.

DeSalvo joined SA the first semester of his freshman year and joined the Finance Board the following semester. He said he has had a great deal of communication with the current comptroller, Jeff Rickert, who has made him familiar with the position he hopes to fill.

‘I am a good candidate because of the communication I have with Rickert and that I know exactly what he does,’ DeSalvo said. ‘Not a lot of people know that, not people even on the Finance Board.’

rebarill@syr.edu

 

 

 

Published on October 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm