SGC-MMC COMMENTARY: Senate rife with confusion during audit discussions

By: Alex Sorondo/Columnist

An odd and perpetually disconcerting staple to attending and trying to keep up with a Student Government Council meeting at the Modesto Maidique Campus is the confusion and the way in which a conversation of ostensible coherence can go on without making any sense until, after a while, it becomes clear that the speakers only thought they were talking about the same thing, but in fact were discussing either two different things, or the same thing, but with two misconceptions of its function or purpose.

Alex Sorondo / Columnist

So went the discussion regarding the audits of student organizations at the SGC-MMC meeting held on Jan. 30.
The audits, in which a student organization reports how much money it was given for the fiscal year, what it has spent so far and what it plans to spend, is, according to SGC-MMC Vice President

Sanjeev Udhnani, are only a supplement to the process of determining how much money an organization will be given year-to-year.
“The audits are a way of keeping an eye on what certain organizations are spending,” Udhnani said, to make sure money is being spent on the projects for which it was allocated and “to spot any red flags early on.”

Last year, audits were not discussed with the Senate. So, with the Senate feeling left out, SGC-MMC President Patrick O’Keefe, SGC-MMC Speaker of the Senate Donovan Dawson and Udhnani decided to bring the audits in for discussion on the Senate floor.

Discussion alone, though, meant only to inform on February’s budget deliberations, which will be carried out by the speakers, comptrollers, vice presidents and presidents of either campus and SGC-MMC Speaker Pro Tempore Samir Patel.

In reviewing the budget and most of the fall expenses for Sorority and Fraternity Life, confusion stalled discussion. While Patel asserted, to settle a debate sparked by miscommunication, that fall audits were clearly a bad idea, Udhnani reassured the Senate of the audits’ value and necessity.

Discussion appeared to be unfolding as though senators were being pressed to decide on the budgets right there, basing their decisions on the figures presented.

Clearly, they aren’t, and I don’t think there would be any shame in giving the senators a quick summary of what they are being asked to do, or the manner in which they are expected to respond, to the document, task or issue with which they’re presented.