Unpaid IUSA bills left to Big Six

A timing issue seems to be the consensus problem.

The Big Six administration will be responsible for paying approximately $7,500 in rollover expenses from last year’s iUnity administration, it was announced at the Sept. 6 IU Student Association Congress meeting.

However, the new expenditures aren’t expected to have a negative effect, IUSA treasurer Kyle Straub said.

The nine costs, ranging from an $18 picture frame to a $4,363.68 charge from Markey’s Rental and Staging, totaled $7,436.94.

Recent developments, however, have knocked that total down to about $3,000.

These rollover costs were submitted to Student Organization Accounts this year by mid-April, the cut-off for reimbursement requests.

It was also during this time that IUSA passed from iUnity to the Big Six. This timing issue led to the current rollover costs.   

IUSA runs on an operating budget, which is an estimated forecast of both expected income — student funding, for example — and expenditures. 

These rollover costs were most likely earmarked in last year’s operating budget, but reimbursement requests were filed late and thus were passed on to the next administration, IUSA Advisor R.J. Woodring said.

Neil Kelty, former chief of staff for the iUnity administration, confirmed Woodring’s thoughts and said members had budgeted for the costs but procrastinated on submitting their reimbursement requests.

Past administrations and other student organizations also deal with rollover payments, as some college students aren’t always timely, Woodring said.

The bulk of the rollover costs, the $4,300 payment due to Markey’s Rental and Staging for a November 2010 event, will not need to be paid by IUSA. This is due to the fact that it is, in fact, not IUSA’s bill in the first place.

Straub, who received the bill early in September, was originally under the impression that the bill somehow escaped the attention of last year’s administration and had intentions to pay the company.

By Sept. 13, however, Straub and the IUSA Student Organization Funding Board determined that the Markey’s charge stemmed from the board’s IU Dance Marathon funding.

Danny Schuster, co-director of Funding Board, said he believes there may have been miscommunication between IUDM and Markey’s with respect to payment, he said.

The board gives money to student organizations to spend as they see fit. Any fees from vendors that organizations deal with should then be directed to the student organization, not Funding Board or IUSA. This is the case with IUDM, Schuster said.

Schuster has yet to speak with IUDM representatives, though he said he suspects the situation is a product of a misunderstanding of how funding of the board works.

“I doubt they would maliciously defer a payment to us,” he said. “They’re going to have to pay it out of their budget at some point, if that turns out how it happened.”

All other rollover expenses will be covered by Big Six’s operating budget of $91,400, which passed last spring, specifically from the $10,000 new initiatives fund.

“Since we tend to over-budget, that doesn’t necessarily mean we only have $2,500 left,” Straub said. “We can partition money from other sources.”

The Big Six also has the option to use money that doesn’t come from the operating budget.

“IUSA has quite a bit of money that rolls over from academic year to academic year,” IUSA historian John Gillard said. “Any money that has been accumulated gets co-mingled.”

This account, which Kelty estimated contained more than $60,000 as of his departure from office, can be used by administrations if they seek to work on large-scale, more expensive projects.

Gillard expressed confusion concerning the Big Six’s choice to use money from its own operating budget instead of the continuous account.

“I didn’t know that we were allowed to do that, and I think our main intention was to stick with what we were initially given,” Straub said.

Regardless of the source of the payment, Straub said he is confident that the new charges won’t be an issue.

“It’s not a big problem at all, and it’s not that big of an inconvenience,” Straub said. “I’ll let this be a learned lesson, that come the end of our administration, we will have all of our reimbursement payments in. You just have to be understanding. I guess it just comes with the territory.”