Editorial: Positive change for SOFC

At last week's Duke Student Government meeting, the Legislature was presented with and approved next year's Student Organization Finance Committee budget, which determines how much money each recognized student group will receive, and heard the first reading of several proposed bylaw changes to the SOFC process designed to make the process more equitable and to direct the money in the process to those organizations that need it most.

Unfortunately and for unknown reasons, DSG President Joshua Jean-Baptiste did not sign the passed budget and essentially pocket vetoed it, so DSG will need to take the issue up again at this week's meeting. If this inaction on the budget on the part of Jean-Baptiste is a result of his recent arrest, then it is more evidence that he cannot be an effective president for the rest of the term and should resign. If this inaction was a result of some other oversight, Jean-Baptiste should show more responsibility in the future in executing his role as the leader of DSG.

In any case, the budget passed by the Legislature last week and likely to be considered again this week was a fair and equitable budget, by all accounts. Of particular note, DSG's own budget was reduced by one-half, saving about $30,000 that can be used by other student groups with more pressing expenses. DSG should be commended for reducing their budgetary requirements this year.

Most of the bylaw changes proposed by the SOFC taskforce are also steps in the direction of improving the organization. The major change is allowing travel expenses to be funded through SOFC for non-sports club organizations. This means that groups like Mock Trial and Model U.N. - the nature of which necessitates travelling - will get funding support for travel. This is a positive change to the process and will help valuable groups fund necessary travel. Excluding sports clubs from this travel stipend is also a good idea, both because sports clubs are too numerous to fund all of them and because numerous athletic outlets exist without travel. Another positive bylaw change will require groups to present past financial statements to SOFC, which will help ensure that the money SOFC is giving to the groups is being well-used. One proposed bylaw change - forcing student groups to go to programs on event planning - seems silly, since not all groups will need this instruction and it should not be mandatory.

Overall, the SOFC process has taken a step forward this year, but more changes need to be implemented to further streamline the process and properly allocate money to needy groups.