The Texas A&M Student Senate found itself in the middle of a pull between student opinion and the Executive Council of the Student Government Association Wednesday when one interested individual found he was denied access to budget information recently obtained by senators. Mark McCaig, Young Conservatives of Texas communications director and a junior marketing major, said he found it unconscionable that the Senate would not disclose financial information to students outside SGA, especially during Senate Listens Week, when senators are trying to get more in touch with their constituents' wants. "The student body has a right to know where the money is being spent," McCaig said when addressing the senators on the floor. "This reeks of cronyism and corruption, and smacks of Tammany Hall. I implore you to do everything within your power to make this information public." Senate leaders filed an appeal last week to obtain a copy of the SGA's line-item budget plan. When senators received the budget information Oct. 3, an attached memorandum by SGA's Vice President for Finance Jackson Hildebrand requested that the Senate leaders distribute the information only to other senators. Hildebrand said SGA is not allowed to release its financial information without the proper approval. To obtain that information, individuals must contact the University's legal counsel, he said. "Line-item budgets have never been released before," Hildebrand said. "Nobody has before requested (that information)." He said he is working within the limits of his job. "It is by no means a process of hiding numbers. I understand it is the Senate's job to respond to their constituents, but having self-generated funds (within SGA) makes those funds irrelevant," Hildebrand said. The Senate must approve the SGA budget annually. Hildebrand said while senators may have already obtained permission to view the specific financial information that they are responsible for passing, non-senators will have to go through a process to find out about the committees' spending. "I am ready and willing to work with anyone who deems it necessary to obtain the numbers," Hildebrand said. SGA receives 35 percent of its funding from Student Service Fees, he said. "Students deserve access to (how that money is spent) by all means," Hildebrand said. Since the other 65 percent is self-generated, he said, it is up to the discretion of the committees to reveal those line items. "That's not where student service fees are going," he said. "That's not student money being spent." The SGA Diversity committee's line-item budget was distributed to the senators in a handout from the meeting, after the allocation of $8,500 to the committee within the 2003-2004 budget plan elicited some controversy during its first reading in the Senate Sept. 24 meeting. Early in Wednesday's meeting Vice President for Diversity Pablo Rodriguez outlined the committees' hierarchy, mission and programs for the senators.
Rodriguez said the SGA Diversity committee is a management team that oversees the culture of student government and an educational group.
"I want to dispel the myth that diversity is a tightrope that we walk - the tightrope of political correctness," he said. "We're not on a crusade to change beliefs. We don't focus just on differences. (We) also focus on similarities."
He also answered questions from the senators about the committee's involvement in Coming Out Week.
The diversity committee co-sponsored a program with the Gender Issues Education office, Rodriguez said, to start a discussion about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Issues. Sixteen people attended the Oct. 6 discussion, and after the GLBT individuals in the audience introduced themselves, there was some discussion about GLBT issues.
Kerri Ward, speaker pro-tempore and a sophomore business major, said students who have approached her have voiced their concerns about spending their fees on promoting a lifestyle during Coming Out Week that they morally disagree with.
"Students who have come to me have said they don't want it," Ward said. "Think about your constituency."
Sen. William Dugat, a freshman geology major, said he noticed there were no fund-raising efforts on the part of the Diversity committee during the previous year.
The line-item budget also listed no fund-raising events planned for the current year.
After Rules and Regulations Committee Chair Jessie Miller moved to pass the budget in its entirety, External Affairs Chair John Mathews amended Miller's motion to accept the budget without the $8,500 for Diversity.
After the motion was seconded, an hour of debate ensued.
Sen. Jeff Graham, a junior management major, asked why the Diversity group could not be self-sufficient.
Sen. Will Hailey, a freshman political science major, said it was not a government's job to make sure the students are thinking the right way.
"Spending money on Coming Out Week raises questions for me," he said.
Sen. Will McAdams, Corps Commander and a senior political science major, said that if the Senate cut Diversity now, it would send a message to the University administration.
"The University administration is pushing this all over the place. It's going to be supported one way or another," McAdams said. "We've had four weeks of just a bloodbath in our organization (about Diversity)."
Mathews said he was suspicious of Diversity's intent because it seemed to be turning into a committee of indoctrination.
Former Student Senator and current Executive Director for Experiential Education Narietha Carter said that for the Senate to reject Diversity's budget would send a horrible message to high school students.
"How would you feel if you saw that the Texas A&M Student Senate rejected Diversity in a Houston Chronicle headline?" she asked. " (University President Robert M.) Gates has given complete reverence to diversity. We've given him complete trust in molding this University, and we've gained so many accolades (for Diversity) in SGA."
She said diversity is education.
"If we go out in the real world with stereotypical views, the real world will shut the door on us," Carter said.
The amendment to cut the Diversity budget failed, and another amendment to reduce the budget from $8,500 to $3,000, also failed.
The budget finally passed in its entirety, by a margin of 27 to 21, voted on by secret ballot.
At the end of the night, Ward, Graham, Hailey and Sen. Scott Smith introduced a bill stating that the Senate supported all efforts to make all SGA committee line-item budgets available to any inquiring individual.
Ward said the bill was intended to let students know that senators were doing their best to be accountable to constituents, and would require action.
"The Senate will do everything in its power to release the information to the public," Ward said once the bill passed.
The bill was tabled, ending debate for the night, and leaving the bill to be taken up again at the next Senate meeting on Oct. 22.
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