Michigan Student Assembly members approved a change to their governing code last night that calls for a provision they thought already existed.
The assembly endorsed a measure stating that both its executive officers and the MSA administrative coordinator can authorize "regular and periodic" disbursements of up to $250 from the assembly's Operations account to purchase office supplies. The resolution also states that disbursements can be made without immediate assembly approval.
LSA Rep. Andy Schor, who proposed the change, said he and his colleagues had wrongly assumed the signers could authorize up to $250, when actually, technicalities in the assembly's budgetary language did not give the signers this privilege.
"Technically, before this, they couldn't spend anything," Schor said.
The code change also states that any disbursements made by the authorized signers must be approved by the assembly at the next meeting where MSA reaches quorum.
Schor said this part of the change will allow signers to authorize office expenses in the summer months when quorum cannot be reached.
Some MSA members said the code change resulted from the recent probe into a $500 allocation from the Operations account made without assembly approval by MSA Vice President Probir Mehta.
"This is definitely a reform that came out of the investigative committee," Schor said. "It's a definite positive step toward fixing what's broken."
MSA President Fiona Rose said she is glad the code changes were adopted and does not think the change is a direct result of the recent investigation.
"I think this has just been a clear need for a long time - we should have gotten to it a long time ago," Rose said. "We need that power at minimum - that's just to keep the office up and running."
Schor said the new code change defines the rules and takes away any loopholes that may have existed.
"The authorized signers need to have certain power to authorize money for the daily operations of the office, which includes numerous services for students," Schor said. "But also, we need to have a check in case something goes wrong."
Although the rules change passed, many MSA members said they thought a penalty clause should have been included with the resolution.
The penalty clause, which narrowly failed 15-14, would have required authorized executive officers to reimburse the assembly for any allocations they sign that violate the new measure.
"If there is no enforcement, what difference does it make?," asked Rackham Rep. Ray Robb.
"(But) it's still a change for the better."