By Natalie Crnosija
The Feb. 2 USG Senate meeting approved three allocation requests totaling $19,000 with stunning efficiency. This was due in part to the Senate’s plans to attend the “Vigil for Haiti,” said Senator Mahyar Kashan, but more significantly, because new Treasurer Moiz Khan had streamed-lined the appropriations process.
“Moiz is doing a great job,” said Kashan. “Moiz was here all winter. He’s very dedicated. He’s always [in the USG office].”
The USG Senate unanimously approved Senator Moiz Khan’s appointment during their December 3 meeting, their last meeting of the semester. Khan, a first term senator, said he was very happy to be appointed to the position and revealed that it had been his plan to be elected to the treasury in the 2010 spring election.
“It was my goal to run for treasurer,” Treasurer Moiz Khan. “So I had a lot of stuff prepared.”
Khan’s appointment by President Jasper Wilson occurred in the wake of former Treasurer Matthew Anderson’s impeachment and resignation.
Treasurer Matthew Anderson resigned from the Undergraduate Student Government on December 3 after an impeachment hearing. The hearing was closed to the public and the press.
According to the minutes from the Senate’s Dec. 2 closed hearing that have since been released, Senator Deborah Machalow “moved to adopt the Resolution Impeaching Matthew Anderson…The Resolutions were adopted unanimously.”
“I was doing the best I could,” said Anderson. “Even with all the time I could put in, I was not the best person for the job.”
Anderson said he supported Khan’s appointment. “Moiz will make an excellent treasurer,” said Anderson. “The USG is in very capable hands in the treasury department.”
Impeachment proceedings against Anderson began after the USG received complaints about Anderson’s performance from undergraduate clubs, said Senator Syed Haq.
“A big part of the concern was from clubs and students regarding miscommunication and a lack of communication and just a general lack of organization,” said Haq.
“We wanted to bring a sense of accountability because the Senate serves as a check to the executive branch.”
Immediately after Anderson submitted his resignation, Wilson began his search for the new treasurer. Before Khan’s approval, Haq said the appointee might be chosen from outside the USG to avoid bias. Khan is a USG insider and a member of the budget committee, a position which exposed Khan to the budget process and interested him in the role of treasurer.
The most challenging part of Khan’s job will be digitizing treasury paperwork, a process which is beginning this semester with the acquisition of PDF-rendering software, said Kashan. The $1,000 software acquisition was approved by the Senate during the Feb. 2 meeting, accompanied by a $16,000 allocation for the funding of this spring’s Roth Regatta and $2,000 for Khan’s planned budget workshop for USG clubs and organizations.
Khan hopes to digitize all club and organization paperwork and created a program to advertize events online. Kashan said the availability of this information will keep student groups informed and make their budget requests easier for the Senate to process and fulfill.
“If they’re more organized, we can be more organized,” said Kashan. “We can allocate funds more easily.”
To get these initiatives off the ground, Khan is putting in a lot of unpaid overtime, said Executive Vice President John Kriscenski. “He’s putting in 40 hours a week,” said Kriscenki. “He only gets paid up to 15 hours. He’s getting things up to speed [and] doing a lot of work. Moiz is making it run smoother.”
