Not all seats ran on multiple candidates during Student Government (SG) elections last week, and Harrison Andrews, a second-year studying political science and communication, ran uncontested for student body treasurer.
The student body treasurer is the chief financial officer for the student body and for SG. Along with keeping track of SG’s finances, the student body treasurer is responsible for leading the appropriations process, working with appropriations and finance committees and helping finance initiatives related to tuition and fees.
“Appropriations can be very confusing to brand new student organizations and new student organization leaders, so I really want to help develop resources for student organization leaders,” Andrews said.
As the upcoming student body treasurer, Andrews said he plans on finalizing a centralized resource guidebook for student organizations to receive funding. With the process for funding very decentralized at the moment, Andrews said he plans on putting together the resources for registration and financing, as well as working with departments, such as the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement, to increase accessibility and decrease confusion for student organizations.
“[Registration] can be confusing to new organizations and existing ones,” Andrews said. “There’s a lot of forms that student organizations have to fill out in order to become registered student organizations, so just reevaluating the process and see[ing] what we can improve upon to make it easier for the students and make it more transparent and clear.”
After two years of working within the treasury branch and this year serving as the deputy treasurer, Andrews said he also plans on making some changes to SG’s internal funding. According to Andrews, he plans on continuing to centralize funding resources for legislative committees and executive departments, as well as working with SG members to ensure they stay within their budget.
“I already know a good group of people in both of those branches that I can reach out to to work on things together,” Andrews said. “I’m a big believer in cross-branch collaboration and working together.”
Andrews said he also plans on making the treasury branch more accessible to the student body. With the upcoming fall semester predicted to be mostly in person, Andrews said he plans on giving students the option to meet either in person or virtually to maximize outreach, alongside providing treasury-focused town halls for students to attend.
According to Andrews, he also plans to focus budgeting and appropriations discussions on giving back to the student body.
“We’re giving out about $95,000 to $96,000 for each of our appropriation cycles next fiscal year, so about $200,000 total,” Andrews said. “It was a lot of money, and the student organizations will take that and use it to provide experiences and events for students on campus.”
Andrews said he also wants to remain as accessible to the student body as possible during his time as student body treasurer. He said that, alongside making information more accessible, he also wants to make the treasury branch easier to contact.
“If any student has any concerns about anything on campus, they’re free to reach out to me,” Andrews said. “I’m available over email, I can sit down and have coffee and I meet over Zoom.”
For more information on the treasury branch, visit the SG website.
