University officials silent after duplicate organizations siphon off funding
Following a scandal in which duplicate student organizations were revealed to be siphoning off money from the Student Assembly’s budget, Cornell University is refusing to say how much money the fraudulent student organizations managed to secure.
A “loophole” in the rules governing the Student Assembly’s Student Activities Funding Commission allowed students at Cornell to create duplicate shell organizations to get around funding limits imposed by the Commission. “Thirty to 40 percent of the student organizations requesting SAFC funding” may have been fraudulent, according to a report from The Cornell Daily Sun.
“Certain organizations are abusing the access to that [SAFC] funding, for some organizations have nearly identical leaderships, the same advisors, and the same [organizational] mission,” said Dale Barbaria, the Student Assembly’s vice president of finance, according to The Sun.
Shortly after discovering the shell organizations, the Student Assembly amended its bylaws to allow for the creation of a review committee to audit student groups funded by the Commission.
Now, Cornell officials and student leaders are refusing to comment on just how much money went to the shell student organizations.
The College Fix reached out to Uchral Tergel, the co-chair of the Commission, to ask how much money was given to the fraudulent groups. “I prefer to sit down if it’s an official interview. Otherwise, I will not disclose any information via email,” Tergel said.
Tergel did not reply when The College Fix offered to conduct interviews via both phone and video chat.
Cornell’s media relations department did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The College Fix. The Student Activities Funding Commission also did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the amended bylaws of the Assembly, henceforth the newly-created Financial Organization Review Committee will screen student organizations applying for funding to see “(1) if there is an existing SAFC funded organization that fulfills the new organization’s purpose and mission, (2) if there is an existing club that has identical or overlapping officers and/or advisor, and (3) whether the organization needs funding from SAFC to function or can significantly benefit from access to SAFC funding.”
“FORC will audit organizations currently funded by SAFC to check (1) if any organizations have identical or multiple overlapping officers and advisor, and (2) if there are any organizations that receive funding from multiple Orgsync profiles but represent the same group,” the bylaws continue.
“If an organization is found clearly fall into any of these categories, FORC can by majority vote declare that the organization in question is no longer in good standing with SAFC, making the organization not eligible for SAFC funding,” the rules add. Decisions can be appealed to the Appropriations Committee “and overruled by a majority vote” of that same committee.
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