On February 15th, the Arts Undergraduate Society announced that the administration was withholding $90,000 in student fees from the organization due to a failure to submit financial audits from the past several years in the allotted time.
David Marshall, president of the AUS, and the rest of the executive have been trying to rectify the situation ever since, working with Robyn Wiltshire, director of the deputy provost (student life and learning) office.
There was some good news this past week when the deputy provost’s office said the money would be delivered.
“We haven’t received our fees or heard specifically when we will get them,” Marshall said in an email to the Tribune. “However, the deputy provost’s office has informed us that they are forthcoming on the basis of information that we are able to provide them information about this year’s financial practices, not those of years past.”
In the meantime, the AUS has taken steps to try and mitigate the effects of the financial loss in the short term.
“I’ve taken lots of personal liability,” Marshall said. “This might limit student involvement [in the AUS] because students might not want to be involved if they have to extend their credit limit and take on debt for the sake of the society.”
On top of paying for events with their own money, the AUS executives are working with their new auditors to obtain the required documentation the university has requested.
“We hired new accountants because our old ones weren’t satisfactory, we’ve been working with this new audit team since October to get the last three years of financial statements in order,” Marshall said. “[Getting new auditors] wasn’t just to cover ourselves, it was to have better financial practices for the future.”
These new financial practices seem to be paying off, with the administration saying they will release the funds soon. Although the administration said they understand that this is affecting students this year who have paid the fees, there is no exact timetable for when the funds will be turned over. However, Marshall was careful to note that practices are being put in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“[The administration] are being responsive, [but] they want more reassurance about future projects than about past sins.”
