Wright loses $11,000 in surplus funds

Wright Quad students are speaking out against a new bill passed by the Residence Hall Association.

After a bill was passed to reallocate surplus funds, Wright Quad lost almost $11,000, which Ben Siebert, vice president of finance for Wright student government, said was going to pay for a 60th anniversary party.

Every academic year, residence halls start off with some rollover cash from the previous year. Wright student government had been saving parts of that rollover money every year for more than 10 years, adding to its surplus fund.

Michael Coleman, RHA’s vice president of internal affairs, said the bill was going to evenly distribute surplus funds between all 11 residence halls.

Briscoe and Wright Quads were the two dorms with surplus funds and the only ones to lose any money, Coleman said.

Residents of Wright Quad spoke at last week’s RHA General Assembly meeting to discuss their problems with the bill. A big complaint was that the reallocation seemed rushed and poorly constructed, Siebert said.

“RHA did not take the time to consider the ramifications of this bill,” Siebert said.
When the bill was being proposed, Siebert said he thought there was not enough communication on RHA’s behalf with Wright Quad and the students.

“RHA did not do its job in getting the input of the students about the new bill,” he said.
The main goal of speaking at the meeting, Siebert said, was to let RHA know they were not going to stand by and do nothing. They want to make sure it does not happen again.

Many members of the general assembly felt the surplus funds were not being properly spent and needed to be used on the students at that time, not ones in the future, Coleman said.

Siebert said RHA did not take the time to talk to the students. He said many Wright residents had stressed their concerns with the bill, and there were also many first-year students at the general assembly meeting disagreeing with it.

Junior Mollie Burgess, who lived in Wright her freshman year and served as a resident assistant the next year, attended the meeting Wednesday. Taking this money is hurting the students and their programming, Burgess said, adding that her biggest problem was that there was nothing prohibiting Wright from saving the surplus.

The money being saved was going to be used for the students, and RHA thought Wright was handling the money in the wrong way, she said.

“There was nothing that dictates that we were doing anything wrong,” Burgess said.
Siebert said Wright Quad will only be getting its share of the divided funds, amounting to a little more than $3,000.

Coleman said there is no way the bill can be reversed and that the best he can do is to stress looking over new bills and making sure all delegates understand them fully.

As far as the lack of student opinion obtained, Coleman said it is the job of the RHA delegates to speak to students from their residence hall.

Coleman said there was a lack of communication on both sides of the issue. RHA did not know Wright was planning a huge 60th anniversary event. In the future RHA will try to make sure all parties involved are staying in the loop, he said.

“I think the bill would not have passed had Wright told RHA they were planning such a large event,” Coleman said.