The President of the Coalition of Students for Reform filed a petition for legal review before the Student Government Council – Modesto A. Maidique Campus Supreme Court, challenging the standing budget process which enables members of the Executive and Legislative branches to draft, allocate and approve the budget for the whole Activity & Service Fee fund.
The hearing for this petition was held January 27, 2012 at 6:00pm in the Rafael Diaz-Balart Hall room RDB 1000.
“After analyzing Florida State Statutes, we discovered that as mandated by the State Legislature, the legislative body of SGA should be the one approving and allocating the entire budget, not just ¼ of the funds as it is now” said William-Jose Velez, president of CSR. “We understand the current process to be unlawful and non-compliant with the intent of the state government as to how the A&S fee funds should be allocated.
In question is whether the University-Wide Budget Committee, composed of both campuses Presidents, Vice Presidents, Speakers, Speakers Pro Tempore, and Comptrollers, as well as the Campus-Specific Budget Committees (one each for each campus, composed of the respective officials named above) have the authority along with the University-Wide Council to approve and allocated the funds, instead of the two campus’ Senate.
CSR’s position is that this responsibility, should and does fall under the Senate from each campus, for their respective budgets, and under both Senates together as the SGA Congress for university-wide line items. “Not only do we believe it appropriate for the directly elected representatives of the students to have a say in the entire budget, but ultimately it is the state law” added Velez.
The MMC Supreme Court heard arguments from Velez, and from SGC-MMC Attorney General Phillip Colesanti, who responded the petition on behalf of the SGC-MMC arguing for the legality of the process.
CSR understands the government’s position to be erroneous, and based solely on an unlawful precedent.
Within 10 business days of the hearing, a written opinion shall be disclosed by the court with their decision on this case designated Ex Parte Velez SC 001 (Spring 2012).
Upon the publication of the court decision, CSR will deliver a response, expecting the court to side with the petitioner’s argument that the current budget process is indeed unlawful.
The FIU Coalition of Students for Reform is a student political party founded in 2008, which aims for a more transparent, accessible and efficient student government.
-William-Jose Velez
Coalition of Students for Reform