When Nicholas Carrè took office as UF Student Body treasurer, he sought to make Student Government’s finances available to students.
But this goal took a detour.
Carrè said he learned during his second week in office that students wouldn’t have access to Docutraq, the activity request system for student organizations funded by SG, because it would show students personal information.
The program, currently in its third version, would have shown an account holder’s UFID number and address, he said.
"Regular students can’t have access to all that information without violating a bunch of laws," he said.
Before Carrè learned this, he planned for the website to be accessible with students’ GatorLink login.
"I really came into it thinking it was simple," he said.
To filter that information out and give every student access, he would have to wait until Docutraq was updated to its fourth version. That could be a year from now, Carrè said, as SG’s IT department is stretched thin.
The three members that make up that department are focusing on other projects, such as creating the new SG website, he said.
To combat the software limitations, SG has been releasing transparency reports on its homepage.
"The report filters all that stuff out," said Stanley Beckerdite, the business manager for SG Finance.
Carrè said the report was the best alternative to Docutraq to keep finances visible.
Recent SG finance activity has been mostly blanket costs, Beckerdite said. These costs set a certain amount aside for programs such as free printing at the Reitz Union, funding for Marston Science Library, and funding for free admission to the Samuel P. Harn Museum and the Florida Museum of Natural History.
This sets a cap on how much money these programs have to use throughout the year, Beckerdite said.
Currently, these reports are being released once a month, but Carrè hopes to release them bimonthly soon. He would send reports on the 1st and 15th every month.
The last report was published Aug. 2 and the next one should be published in a few days, he said.
"I’d rather provide students with something that is similar to what I want them to have," he said.
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
