Following discrepancies in Student Government’s budget, University administrators will take control of the organization’s checking account, beginning March 1, according to University officials.

Don Patty, director of business and planning, said the services are being offered to Student Government to free the student body treasurer, Seneca Toms, and student body comptroller, Jennifer Murden, to allocate their time to other tasks.

Patty said he discussed the change with leaders in Student Government and was met with cooperation. He said the students felt the additional support would be an advantageous service.

“We felt that if we could offer that service, it would free up a considerable chunk of the student body treasurer and comptroller’s time that they could devote to other issues, Patty said.

He said the shift would only concern the writing of checks, and pointed to the authority to appropriate funding as remaining within the Student Government.

Toms said he initially opposed the transfer, prompted after a University audit of the account in December, but now agrees it would help with keeping records in the long run.

In December, Toms said he was given the option of closing the account or transferring the control over writing checks.

“It reduces a little bit of the flexibility of the treasurer or the designee with writing the checks,” he said, noting possible disadvantages of having administrative oversight.

According to Toms, problems in the Student Government budget have existed for years — and occurred due to issues in bookkeeping, the maximum amount of money in the account at a given time and a lack of communication.

“It wasn’t about mismanaging money — it was more about the management of records the way the University wanted,” he said.

Having the official oversight on the account, in the end, will be a positive change, Toms said. The account will now be benefited by full-time accounting support, which will help the body sustain records according to University standards.

Adam Compton, a sophomore in construction engineering management, said there had been complications in past years regarding the budget and any business, under the same circumstances, would have outsourced the accounting much faster.

Compton said he plans to run for student body treasurer in the March elections.

“It doesn’t seem like we’re really losing a lot because of the fact that we’ll still be able to do everything we could do,” he said.

Compton pointed to most of the organizations on campus as having someone else to write the checks for their groups.

Ultimately, he said although he would rather skip the extra step and be able to control writing the checks, it would be all right if the appropriate checks are cut.

Compton said the suggestion was met with debate within Student Government and was seen as a ploy to take away the body’s ability to control their own funding, but has since been resolved with most people agreeing that very little would change.

“It may be a better thing in the long run because of the extra accountability,” he said.