Shawnna Forget
News Editor
Student Community Government (SCG) announced with great importance that a few organizations have violated their respective constitutions. As a result, the funding for those organizations that still need to comply with the established guidelines has been frozen. SCG notes this action is not punitive but rather an opportunity for these clubs to rectify and address the issues adequately. All organizations that had violations were explicitly emailed by 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8th.
Mathew Jacques, the president of SCG, spoke with The Anchor in light of recent events. At the time, no organization was named.
Jacques initially explained some of the severe violations: a member of the organization who does not attend RIC choosing officers for one organization instead of students electing those officers. This violation was reported to SCG by several group members, saying they were not given an opportunity to run for the election. This same organization had an outside person responsible for the group's finances rather than the organization's officers.
This organization was warned when complaints came forward, via email and verbally, and no attempt was made to fix these violations. The SCG members felt this organization should have taken this message seriously when no work had been done to fix the problem, resulting in a funding freeze.
Jacques said there were other minor infractions, such as officers not performing their assigned duties and other minor constitutional violations. Jacques remained optimistic these groups would remain professional and do the necessary work.
These issues have been on SCG’s radar for a couple of weeks. The organization's funding freeze was a decision made by the executive council, who have been actively investigating and discussing the issue. Jacques emphasizes the value of student-led organizations and the importance of RIC students having fair representation in these organizations.
Video via Anchor TV on Youtube
Later, it became apparent the RIC branch of the Sojourn Collegiate Ministry was the organization with most of the violations. President of Sojourn Alec Brown and Jacques signed an agreement to unfreeze the funds for the organization. The guidelines were laid out as such: only the president or treasurer is responsible for the funds, must hold an actual election for all officer positions without influence from non-RIC students and acknowledge and take responsibility for their actions.
In order to rectify the situation, Sojourn must complete these highlighted guidelines then their funds will be unfrozen.
Jacques reminded us to follow organizational respective constitutions, which are a tool for guiding us on how to do so. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact ricscg@ric.edu.
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