Financial committee looks at proposed accounting changes

By Melissa Tsang     12/4/08 6:00pm

In preparation for the upcoming administrative changes for club financing, the Student Association created a Club Finance Committee on Oct. 26 to serve as a liaison between club treasurers and the university administration. The committee is responsible for representing student club interests when working with Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins and Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman in regard to club accounting policies and finances. The committee will also work closely with the Graduate Student Association.

Jones College junior Michael Lin heads the Club Finance Committee, and members include Brown College senior Akshay Dayal, Brown junior Tiffany Wu, Jones senior Lily Banerjee, Hanszen College senior Sarah Mitchell, who is also the Thresher's business manager, and Jones junior Rachel Orosco.

Lin said the diverse representation, with representatives from both large-budget and small-budget clubs included among committee members, reflects an attempt to represent all club opinions and bank account sizes.

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"The treasurers that were in this committee are of a huge variety," Lin said. "We're all from different kind of clubs. We wanted a big variety because of representation, and we wanted to make sure that we have all the other clubs' opinion sin what we're trying to do and what we're trying to propose."

Of the four meetings for which the committee has convened so far, half have been with Collins. At the committee's first meeting, Forman was also present.

"He was very enthusiastic about this committee," Dayal said.

Lin said the committee has only recently begun working with Collins and started off by first delineating potential issues within the clubs and understanding each other's intents and purposes.

"We understand each others' opinions, agendas and goals in this committee," Lin said. "Of course, you have sort of a different goal but it's in the same direction, so as long as that's laid out I'm sure that everything can be negotiated."

Dayal said that issues raised during meetings ranged from training for the new system to accessing funding on BANNER, Rice's network system containing employee, student, departmental, and budget information.

"It's a lot of different things," Dayal said. "A lot of aspects of the proposals we've been discussing [include] training, ways we can access our funding for making reimbursements and purchasing items. Control has been brought up across the board but a lot of the things are still being determined."

Most of the proposed university administrative changes are related to ways of accessing club funds, Dayal said.

"Essentially, the university wants to bring accounts within the Rice financial system for tax purposes and general accounting purposes," Dayal said. "The changes being made are basically how we can access our funds and how clubs can manage money in general. We want to basically best shape those policies for all other clubs to access and ease of use of their money."

Collins said the intensifying regulatory climate due to an increased amount of federal scrutiny on university finances has compelled the university to introduce these changes to better document all student clubs financial activity.

"None of the activities in club accounts are being reported in Rice's financial statements or in our tax returns that we file every year," Collins said. "The main reason we're doing it is for compliance reasons, to make sure our financial statements and tax returns accurately reflect all activity and to do the necessary tax compliance returns of issuing W-2's and 1099's for individuals and vendors."

Advantages of moving club finances into Rice's BANNER financial system include not requiring clubs to pay fees when accounts do not meet the required balance or are overdrawn and to facilitate better record-keeping. Collins said because of recent technological advances, the university is better equipped for a smooth transition to the BANNER system.

"In 2009 we'll be able to do direct deposits for reimbursements to students, which wasn't available to students in past years," Collins said. "We established more tools on BANNER in terms of processing payments."

Collins first raised the issue of moving all club financial activity into the university's BANNER system over the past summer with Forman.

However, even with administrative changes, both Lin and Dayal agreed that the university administration does not want to change clubs' financial autonomy.

"We've gotten pretty strong affirmations of their will to not interfere with our finances in any way other than making sure we can access them," Brown senior Dayal said. "So with that in mind, I don't think autonomy is really going to be in much danger. Of course, we're holding them to their word on that."

Collins aims for clubs to finish transitioning into Rice's financial system by early next year.

"The calendar is that we would transition by the end of February," Collins said. "We would use January as a training period. The procedures we are discussing with the colleges and SA clubs include making available to student groups all of the payment methods that Rice employees now have. We're also putting together a handbook, a reference guide to explain procedures and who to contact in the Controller's Office for assistance."

Though there are still issues that need to be worked out, the committee is working closely with Collins on a rough draft proposal for club financing that is modeled after that of colleges, Dayal said.

"We're working with a draft of what the colleges are going through with that as a template, to determine what would be best for all the clubs," Dayal said.

Both Lin and Dayal said the university has been very receptive to student opinion and input.

Student Association president Matt Youn said he is confident that he close collaborations between the committee and university administration will lead to a solution that is satisfying for both sides.

"I hope the committee will work well with Kathy Collins to formulate the best plan for the clubs in general at Rice," Youn, a Brown senior, said. "After seeing some good results from the work that the college treasurers did with Kathy [Collins], I am confident that the Club Finance Committee will have a good plan by early next semester."

The committee plans to hold an open forum with treasurers from any college to voice their opinions and ask questions.

Lin encouraged any students who interested in working with the SA Club Finance Committee to contact him by email at wl4@rice.edu.

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