Why a Secretary for Financial Affairs?
The current Office of the Comptroller would be eliminated, and the Secretary for Financial Affairs would act as the “chief financial advisor to ASMSU.” As a secretary, this officer would have direct accountability to the Student Senate, a key relationship, considering that ASMSU has an annual operating budget of over $800,000. In contrast, the current comptroller is chosen via interview, rather than election, and has indirect accountability to the Student Assembly, currently charged with handling most of the ASMSU’s financial matters. Programming Board and Funding Board Comptrollers would likely be retained, and would remain jointly responsible to the Secretary for Student Programming or Secretary for Student Funding, respectively, and the Secretary for Financial Affairs. Under the current system, board comptrollers report both to the ASMSU Comptroller and the Chairperson of their respective boards. This relationship, however, would be officially defined in the Code of Operations; it i
