The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate has been in talks with the administration about creating a new position that would be directly responsible for overseeing the monetary transactions of all student organizations, a change meant to alleviate the disorganization that may have opened the door to former Office of Student Activities Director Jodi Nealley's alleged embezzlement of $300,000.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman met last week with the TCU Senate's executive board to discuss the implementation of more substantial controls on how student organizations and the university staff that work with these groups handle their money.
One main goal of the committee will be to establish a staff position dedicated to overseeing all monetary transactions for student organizations, according to TCU President Neil DiBiase, a senior. He said that the current lack of such an officer may be part of the reason that Neally was allegedly able to pilfer from the student organizations she was supposed to be helping.
"We're talking about the creation of a new position that will oversee how all money for student groups and all money that we handle is controlled," DiBiase told the Daily.
Reitman will assemble a committee to formulate this position, as well as to eventually begin a job search, according to DiBiase. The committee will include students and administrators.
"There's a committee that will be started in the next week or so," DiBiase said. "They'll write up a job description and start a job search. I would hope [to see this employee hired] by next fall."
"The new position will handle student finances across the board - really just look at everything from a macro level," he added. "They're going to look at student ticket sales, integration systems - we have a bunch of ways to pay for things, withdraw from accounts."
But DiBiase and Reitman both said that the change should have little to no effect on how student organizations interact with the administration. Rather, the changes will all be internal within the administration.
"What that involves basically is probably ... transparent to student organizations," Reitman said, "because they are still going to be able to submit budgets and proposals to various councils on the allocations board."
DiBiase said that although the new staff member would deal exclusively with overseeing funding for student organizations, he or she would not necessarily be in a position to embezzle.
"It would be a bookkeeper, an auditor. They wouldn't necessarily have access to the funds," he said.
The addition of a new employee would be one of a list of changes.
"Where the money is held, where it's kept and the controls by which it's accessed are likely to change," Reitman said.
Some student organizations kept money in outside bank accounts, allegedly making it easier for Nealley to mishandle the funds without tracking by university officials. Reitman said that the restructuring that he and the TCU Senate are discussing would "likely" involve the "closing [of] outside accounts, and bringing that money into the university's financial control systems."
Another potential change would be that Tufts would better incorporate the outside accountant whom the TCU Senate pays to deal with student organization funding. "We've always had an outside accountant that we deal with outside of the university," DiBiase said. "We're going to be bringing that position into the university."
Reitman called this a "minor position."
DiBiase hopes that the future committee's changes will eliminate the threat of future embezzlement.
"Basically, we're just trying to streamline the process and make all student finances at Tufts more transparent, and just make sure that money is secured," DiBiase said.
