TASA punished for buying alcohol

The Tufts Association of South Asians (TASA) was fined and the group's funding was restricted after the group admitted last night that it tried to use university funding to buy alcohol.

A public hearing, the Allocations Board of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate heard how TASA attempted to defraud the TCU Treasury and willfully submitted a reimbursement request for alcohol -- a violation of student activities policy -- after holding an event for seniors at Jillian's Boston bar on April 17.

A week later, TASA signatories submitted the non-itemized receipts from the event and an application for reimbursement for $422.26, purportedly to cover the cost of using the facility, pool tables, and food. TASA Treasurer Suman Rao, who did not attend the event, paid for it with his personal credit card.

Former TCU Treasurer Ben Lee ('03) called Jillian's last spring and received a fax of the itemized receipts and discovered that the bill included 16 alcoholic beverages worth $93.

Lee then froze TASA's TCU account and notified the organization that there would be an investigation. Rao was reimbursed for the $329.26 that didn't cover alcohol.

"Basically, we want to find out if they hid anything from us and if so, whether a signatory knew about it," said Lee's successor, TCU Treasurer Josh Belkin.

The hearing was delayed until this semester because the Senate had already held its last meeting when this occurred last semester.

TASA requested that the hearing be held last night because the group's account was still frozen. The hearing took place before the election of the new freshman ALBO members, so only Belkin and four ALBO members were in attendance at the hearing.

TASA was placed on treasury probation two, which means that the group will have to hand in all forms in person and that those forms will receive extra scrutiny. Secondly, TASA will be ineligible for buffer funding and capital expenditures funding -- funding for new equipment purchases -- all year. Finally, they will be fined $93, the cost of the alcohol for which they sought reimbursement.

The group's account has been unfrozen.

TASA representatives at the hearing did not deny the group's guilt. "We come tonight in apology. We aren't denying any of the charges," Rao said. "It was, however, the mistake of two seniors last year."

Rao asked that ALBO "scrutinize all of [TASA's] receipts this year. We want to get trust back."

In a written statement to ALBO, former TASA president Kruti Dharia (LA '03) said: "We know that this was a mistake and it was an utter lapse in judgment...We ask that you do not punish the organization for events that went on the previous year."

Rao told ALBO that TASA received the award for best student organization last year. Kavita Patel, TASA's current president, added that the group "[does] a lot of things for the entire student body, not just South Asian students, and any significant penalty could hinder our ability to do that."

ALBO held closed deliberations for just under an hour and returned with a unanimous decision that TASA would be held responsible on both charges.

Belkin said that the penalty decision was also unanimous. "I don't think it's particularly harsh," he said. "It's pretty standard punishment for treasury violations."

"It's really about fairness. Every dollar they would have gotten for that alcohol is one less dollar that could have gone to the 135 other student groups."

Patel said she believed the penalty imposed by ALBO was fair and she is confident that the organization can move beyond the incident. "The actions of previous TASA officers do not represent what TASA is as an organization," Patel said. "I look forward to making this one of TASA's best years."

Belkin does not expect TASA to appeal.