The Student Association’s budget was passed by the Assembly Monday night, despite debate about the included housing stipends that provide both the president and comptroller with $4,000 a year.

At Monday’s SA meeting, President Travis Mason requested the Assembly fail the Finance Board’s recommendation for SA’s budget because the stipends were included.

‘I encourage the Assembly to send this bill back,’ Mason said at Monday’s meeting. ‘I even put my own stipends on the line for this organization to grow. … If they needed to make cuts, they should have cut stipends first.’

The bill passed, however, because two-thirds of the Assembly vote was needed to send it back to the Finance Board.

SA Parliamentarian Joan Gabel said the reason why the stipend is offered is because compensation is needed for the president and comptroller, even though the finance codes say it is intended to be used for housing costs.

Gabel said SA’s budget must include the housing stipends.

‘The finance codes basically mandate that the stipends be in the budget,’ Gabel said.

Gabel said SA considered removing the stipend from the finance codes, but decided against it because it would offer an opportunity for low-income students to run for parliamentarian and president.

‘The idea is we don’t want to exclude low-income people from running,’ Gabel said.

Both Mason and comptroller Andrew Urankar are slated to receive $2,000 during the summer and $1,000 each semester in housing stipends.

Mason declined to comment on whether or not he will accept his stipend this year.

Urankar said he deserves to receive the housing stipend as a form of compensation for the work he does for SA. His work with SA prevents him from working elsewhere and supporting himself financially, he said.

‘I do a job for the students and for the university community,’ Urankar said. ‘Everyone who is doing work, especially for 20 hours a week, deserves to be compensated.’

Urankar said the code governing the housing stipends is vague and does not specify how he should spend the money. Urankar believes he should have the freedom to decide how to spend the money, he said.

‘I think we need to clarify the code, because as it’s written, it’s too ambiguous,’ he said. ‘Everyone can agree that stipulating where you spend the money that you’re allocated is a bit ridiculous.’

Despite the ambiguity surrounding the housing stipend in the finance codes, some students said SA members should be financially compensated for the amount of work they do.

Karla Parra, a sophomore international relations and public relations major, was a member of SA for a month earlier this year, but quit because of the overwhelming amount of work involved, she said.

‘The work that they put in definitely deserves some sort of compensation,’ Parra said. ‘The people that are there spend so much time there and they do so much work.’

However, Parra said SA members should only be paid when they are working on campus, and not during the vacation breaks, she said.

‘They should not be compensated when they’re not on campus doing any work for the school,’ Parra said. ‘In the summer, the rest of the students are off campus and we have to look for housing, too.’

STAFF WRITER KELVIN ANG CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT

Published on April 28, 2005 at 12:00 pm