The Fee Allocation Committee (FAC) has had five representatives step down or graduate thus far during the 2017-2018 academic year. FAC is one of the Associated Student Government’s (ASG) committees and serves as a preliminary evaluator of the bills that ASG will vote upon.
FAC meets every Monday, two days before the ASG general assembly meeting, to see presentations from any clubs requesting money.
FAC is comprised of the FAC chair, who runs the meeting; the president-elect representative, appointed by the ASG president; four ASG representatives, appointed by the ASG vice president; and four board member representatives, chosen by board members.
The four boards represented—the Media, Monument, Maverick and Mesa boards—are comprised of various organizations on campus.
FAC’s size of nine voting members allows representatives to discuss bills efficiently and make necessary cuts before ASG sees the bills, according to FAC chair Jacob Wellborn.
Wellborn, a math major, became FAC chair last year, the second semester when he stepped into the role after a resignation. Prior to this role, he was the FAC director of finance, a position that and no longer exists.
Though FAC is a vital part of ASG’s bill evaluation process, especially during biennial years in which organizations’ budgets are determined.
“Any organization that wants to grow has to get our approval,” Wellborn said. “If someone wants to become a new organization, like CMU-TV was a new thing last time, we had to pass their whole thing.”
The turnover of the five representatives from FAC occurred last semester. No representatives have changed this semester, according to Wellborn.
Of the five resignations last semester, two were the result of graduation. Another resignation was due to a conflict with nursing school clinicals, many of which take place during the FAC meeting time.
Two of the five were for personal or ethical reasons.
The first of these resignations was former Representative Pua Utu, who also serves as ASG’s chief justice. Both Wellborn and Utu saw a possible conflict of interest if Utu continued to serve in both capacities. If FAC were to do anything unconstitutional, Utu would also lead the investigation into the alleged unconstitutional activity.
For ethical reasons, Utu resigned.
The other personal resignation from FAC was former Representative Alec Williams, who represented the Media board. Williams sent his letter of resignation to FAC late in the fall semester, stating his disappointment in the results of the ASG investigation into Sen. Richard Nguyen’s grievance as the reason he no longer wished to be involved with an ASG committee.
“The Alec thing happened and then Pua; those were the only two that were maybe controversial, you could say,” Wellborn said regarding the resignations during the year. “The other ones, what can you do? People graduate, people have classes at this time.”
Despite the high turnover during this academic year, Wellborn reported that FAC has had no trouble reaching the quorum of six representatives needed to vote on a bill. Though Wellborn remembers having to postpone a meeting last semester due to this issue, the same problem has not arisen during the 2017-2018 year.
Wellborn’s involvement in replacing resigned members is minimal. As chair, Wellborn does not vote on bills nor appoint members; he runs the meetings and keeps track of the financial state of each budget from which ASG can pull.
Besides any replacements, new members will be appointed to FAC during the fall semester, during which representatives will participate in a biennial process.
