After being sworn in Tuesday night, new Georgetown University Student Association President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) addressed surplus funds from the student budget during Wednesday night’s GUSA meeting.

Angert said he was dissatisfied with clubs’ tendency to accrue surplus funds throughout the year.

“This cycle has been going on for five years, and I think it’s time we take some action on this,” he said. “We don’t have to spend all of it, but we should spend it down to some extent.”

Angert added that GUSA should investigate further to determine a course of action.

“It needs to be made crystal clear that there are hundreds of thousands of dollars that are sitting there that could be put to use. In the best interest of the student body, I think there’s something we need to do about this,” Angert said.

Senator Tim Swenson (COL ’10), a member of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, echoed Angert’s concerns and questioned why clubs requested more money for next year if they had not spent all their funds from the previous year.

“I think there are long and short term uses that [Angert] and [Jason Kluger (MSB ’11)] are projecting for this,” he said. “This is not an `out of the air’ kind of thing.”

Senator Nick Troiano (COL ’11) presented two bills – the first called for the creation of a research commission to investigate implementing President Obama’s Serve America Act, which gives grants to college students who complete a semester or more of service, at Georgetown. Though the commission would be purely for research purposes, he suggested that GUSA could use the extra money at the funding board to start the project.

The resolution passed, though senators Sam Hyman (COL ’12) and Matt Wagner (SFS ’11), Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair for GUSA, opposed the bill. Hyman, a member of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, said did not think that GUSA would be able to access the excess funds for the project. Wagner said he was hesitant to create another GUSA committee after several problems arose between the senate and the Student Commission for Unity and added that it would be appropriate for the Center for Social Justice to handle the project.

GUSA also passed a second resolution, which addressed the increasing financial transparency on the GUSA funding board. The resolution included plans to require that the Finance and Appropriations Committee publish a public report on the current state of funds in each club at the beginning of each semester and to increase interaction between the Committee and the Office of Student Programs.

“I’m happy that some of these issues are being raised and recognized by the senate committee as a whole,” Angert said.

Kluger said that he thought the meeting went well and was pleased that the senate passed the second resolution.

“I think that it’s important that we’re all on the same side for students getting the money they deserve,” he said.

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