Last Wednesday, the ASI board approved a budget that includes a $61,496 increase for Student Leadership, the largest increase of all ASI programs. With the increase, Student Leadership will be ASI?s largest user of student fees at $368,326. But what the student body isn?t aware of is exactly how that money is being spent.

Executive Director Carol Ackerson, who devised the budget, attributed the large increase to new items in the Leadership program that have come over from other programs. Much of these new costs come from events that operate in conjunction with other programs, that will now be fully paid for by Leadership. ASI President Jason Bryant has said that this will help ASI keep track of the funds because cost for these events will not have to be divided up by several programs.

Another large part of the increase is the $18,932 increase in Leadership staffing costs. This number could go down if there are vacancies of board positions, or if fewer board members work over the summer. This also takes into account the rise in minimum wage for staff workers. Board members will not be given pay increases for next year.

This breakdown of how the monies that are budgeted for ASI Leadership is spent is not currently available from the budget that ASI submits to the public. Janet Rice, ASI director of Finance and Administration, has even gone so far as to tell the Hornet that the inline budgets are not public information. And several members of the ASI Finance and Budget Committee have said that they did not even have access to them.

The budget that ASI submits to The State Hornet and the student population is a simple three-page document. For an organization that handles nearly $7,000,000 in student fees, the idea that the budget would fit into three pages is ludicrous. We would like to see ASI submit a line item budget that shows how every last dollar is spent. The students have the right to know where and how their money is spent. ASI needs to give this information out to the students.