Student Association Treasurer Sikander Khan and Vice President Meghan McMonagle did not need the Senate's approval to sign the contract for $300,000 with Virtual Academix, but they sought it anyway.
Constitutionally, Khan did not have to seek Senate's approval before or after signing the contract because the Senate does not have to approve every expenditure he makes.
The Senate may "approve or disapprove all budgetary line transfers with Student Association which are proposed following the finalization of the budget," according to the SA constitution.
Simply, the Senate only has to approve money moved within SA's accounts, not money being spent to outside vendors.
"All money spent by the Student Association generally has to be approved by the Senate in budget adjustments," said a senator that signed Khan's and McMonagle's document who wished to remain anonymous. "Any time there is a [sum of] money that is a substantial amount, which the $300,000 would have been, people would generally want an explanation as opposed to why the Japanese Club spent $20 at Wegman's - no one really cares [about that]. So he was trying to get the Senate to approve money being spent and needed the approval of certain lines to be created.
Khan and McMonagle signed the contract with Virtual Academix on March 13, just days before the March 22 meeting when $300,000 was moved yet again within SA's budget - the money was moved from a "Projects" line to the new "Long Term Projects Capital Equipment" line without any stipulations or guidelines regarding how the money could be spent.
Khan and McMonagle started approaching senators with a presentation about the mobile application - SA Mobile & Cloud Services - at the end of spring break, according to the same anonymous senator. The senator was approached multiple times about the application up until SA President JoAnna Datz released the details of SA's internal investigation on April 5.
"He presented the app with a PowerPoint and insisted on showing me other evidence of how great this application will be," the senator said. "He talked down about other people and their opinions and about how people are just out to get him. I believe he swore on the Quran that [Virtual Academix] was a [legitimate institution]."
The senator added that Khan and McMonagle never approached the Senate as a whole, rather, only approached senators individually. For the meetings to be legitimate constitutionally, they must be open to all students and documented, according to the senator. By meeting with senators individually, Khan and McMonagle did neither.
Khan approached On-Campus Senator Daniel Ovadia on March 28. Ovadia noted that even though he was presented with the PowerPoint and presentation, he was not asked to sign any documents. He added that he would not have signed any documents if Khan provided the opportunity.
"I think he approached most of the senators, I know there were specifically some of the senators he did not approach," Ovadia said. "In fact, my understanding is that not only did he not approach them, but also in the document that he asked them to sign, he didn't even include their names."
McMonagle approached On-Campus Senator Kittie Pizzutelli on March 27 with the PowerPoint presentation about Virtual Academix, but McMonagle did not offer any documents to be signed, according to Pizzutelli who had prior knowledge of the documents the pair was offering. She never signed any document.
"Sikander asked me months ago to sign a document supporting a proposal he wrote up," Pizzutelli said in an email. "He included all on- and off-campus senators names with a blank space for a signature except Sara McCreary and Louis Siegel."
Pizzutelli couldn't comment on why Khan and McMonagle hand-picked some senators and left out others when looking for support from the Senate. On-Campus Senator Louis Siegel knew he wasn't included in the list but still isn't sure why he was left out.
"The only remote bit of knowledge I had about this was when I received a text from another senator telling me not to sign anything," Siegel said in an email. "One thought I had though is that I was the only senator really pushing for the $300,000 not to [move to] to a [new] line and to leave it where it was. Had they approached me about it, I would have been extremely upset since they told Senate that they moved it in to a line to show people we had it and had no plans of spending it any time soon."
Ovadia said that the document Khan and McMonagle presented to various senators wouldn't have made a difference in the validity or legitimacy of the contract or mobile application deal.
"My understanding is that [this document] wouldn't have made a difference," Ovadia said. "Sikander even told me he didn't need that document, so I don't know what its relevance was [or] if it was just to show strength and support behind his project."
Ovadia and Pizzutelli - who were both approached with the presentation after the March 22 meeting - weren't sure if any senators had knowledge of the mobile application or contract before the Senate meeting. If there were any senators aware, Ovadia said they did not act as if they knew about the contract or the application.
When Khan was asked if he had any plans for the $300,000 moved at the meeting, he stated, "I have a purpose for the money; every treasurer has a purpose for [their] money." He continued to list possible projects for the money, including a mention to the mobile application.
"He certainly didn't lead us to believe that a contract had been signed," Ovadia said. "Based on that, it seemed like 'we have ideas, we could do this, [and] we could do that.' He made it seem like anything was still on the table. I think that we asked him a very clear question at the meeting, and we certainly didn't get a clear response."
Ovadia also raised concern about the amount of proxies present at the March 22 meeting. On-Campus Senator James Gibbons was one senator that Khan approached before the meeting. Khan asked if he could pick the person who would take Gibbons' place. Sikander asked Ayyaz Tufail, president of the Muslim Student Association and the Reason Party's treasurer candidate who lost this year's election, to fill in for Gibbons.
"Sikander asked me if I needed a proxy, I knew I was busy and said sure," Gibbons said in an email. "He said the individual was interested in senate next year. I also asked if Sikander was 'planning something' and he said no. If I knew what was going to happen, I obviously would not have let him pick the proxy."
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
