Benjy Egel
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Important budget information can be hidden behind confusing spreadsheets and dull numbers, but if Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) President Jason Colombini has his way, Cal Poly will be on the cutting edge of government transparency.
The Student Success Fee Allocation Advisory Committee is considering using a budget transparency program called OpenGov to show the public where Student Success Fees go.
OpenGov reorganizes raw budget numbers into easy-to-read graphs and charts to help the public identify funding going into each section of the government.
The committee consists of Colombini, the Board of Directors’ top vote-getters from each academic college and six staff members.
“(OpenGov) is a very easily accessible way to view the budget, whether through graphs, pie charts or raw numbers,” Colombini said. “It’s a really good way to increase transparency.”
The cost of using OpenGov differs based on the budget being organized, but Colombini said it would probably be approximately $1,500.
The premise of OpenGov aligns with two of Colombini’s three goals for the year: growing and developing ASI student government, and effectively representing all students.
Allowing students to see where their money goes leads to students forming more informed opinions on actions they want to see from ASI, Colombini said.
Zach Antoyan, a member of Colombini’s executive cabinet, has been working on bringing OpenGov to Cal Poly for the past two weeks.
Antoyan said he was looking at how many ASI departments should use OpenGov and what the program would bring to the table.
“It’s not just a matter of how much time it’s going to take, but it’s what we’re going to be doing on the inside, how we want to showcase that, and the most transparent and easiest to understand,” he said.
Using OpenGov would help student government members and Cal Poly employees have a clearer picture of the budget, Antoyan said. The current data format is nearly as confusing for ASI members as it is for average students.
The Wall Street Journal wrote an article on the City of Palo Alto’s implementation of OpenGov last July. Monterey, Riverside and a handful of other California cities use OpenGov as well.
Fresno State became one of the first universities to implement OpenGov last spring thanks to ASI Vice President of Finance Rebecca Rosengarten.
To get Fresno State’s OpenGov up and running, Rosengarten had to personally input all the budget information. Now that OpenGov has more workers on staff, Antoyan should be able to enter a ledger and have other people process it.
Most OpenGov pages chart government spending over the past few years. Fresno State’s page goes back five years, when the CSU started receiving budget cuts.
“We have this year’s budget up there, but we also have four previous years of data,” Rosengarten said. “One can actually see how much our spending has changed over five years in any given category.”
Rosengarten, who has accepted a job with OpenGov after graduation, recommended Cal Poly ASI adopt the program.
“Students are constantly complaining about where student fees go. They’re not seeing it, and no one wants to look through a PDF,” she said. “No one wants to look at a bunch of numbers.”
The Student Success Fee is currently $210 per quarter, though it will rise to $260 next fall. The money collected goes to improving educational resources and enriching campus life.
Much of the money goes toward increased enrollment in classes, including hiring additional lecturers to teach popular or universally-required classes.
The Student Success Fee Allocation Advisory Committee usually does not approve motions without a unanimous vote, though only a majority is technically required.
Editor’s note: Zach Antoyan is a Mustang News liberal columnist.