Prepayment travel to return
ORACLE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ
Controversy erupted across campus after Student Business Services (SBS) announced last week that it would no longer offer prepaid travel for student organizations. However, that decision has been rescinded.
Prepaid travel for student organizations will once again be an option for student organizations.
Originally, the policy was removed after student body president Chris Griffin vetoed a bill that would offer funding for an additional SBS staff member. His reasons included concerns about being able to continue funding the position and doubt that SBS’s workload is sufficient to warrant the additional position.
SBS Director Matthew Swanson defended the need for the position in a letter sent out to Student Government (SG) senators. According to the letter, reimbursement-exclusive travel takes 30 minutes for the department to process, but prepayment travel takes two hours to process.
“This was not an easy decision because one of my goals for our department is to eventually move us to only offering prepayment services to make it easier, and less stressful, for students to travel,” Swanson told The Oracle.
“Due to the increase in our travel-related workload, we would not be able to respond to all travel requests if we were still offering prepayment services”
In his letter, Swanson said that last year, SBS managed 967 trips compared to the 586 trips the year before, along with 3,355 fiscal transitions compared to the 2,440 the year before.
However, at the SG senate meeting Tuesday night, the senate overrode Griffin’s veto, which means the position will be funded for $42,652 from unallocated funds.
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