I want to clear up misconceptions that were represented about the Inter-Residence Hall Association in Monday’s Alligator. IRHA serves as the major programming arm of UF’s residence halls as well as the students’ voice in the residence halls. Furthermore, IRHA prides itself on its ability to build great leaders out of its ranks, many of whom go on to achieve great things in the university and the world.
IRHA alumni include Cicerones, Campus Diplomats, Student Body presidents, doctors, lawyers, teachers and anything in between. IRHA has been able to sustain this reputation through its ability to provide new student leaders with the opportunities and resources they need to succeed in life.
The letter in question mentions IRHA’s supposed “unethical” spending of money. I can’t help but refute this. This organization’s spending has rarely come under scrutiny because of our ability to govern our resources in a fiscally responsible way. IRHA’s budgets are governed by no fewer than five documents, and our general body of more than 60 members must pass every amount of money we spend. Twice. The two allocations in question were both evaluated according to these guidelines.
Furthermore, there seems to be some confusion as to IRHA spending residents’ money irresponsibly. Both times mentioned in the article came from a special fund IRHA has that is not funded solely by residents, or even students at all, for that matter. IRHA takes donations from organizations and businesses we have worked with for years and keep it in a special account with Student Government as outlined by its statutes. This fund is used for many purposes, including helping endow scholarships, donations to charity after catastrophic events such as the earthquake in China, unforeseen expenses and, yes, our IRHA camping trip.
This fund is not used liberally and is held to the same strict standards of vetting to which the rest of our money is held. Regardless, it must be said absolutely none of this money is funded in part or at all by our residents’ rent.
This account was responsible for the funding of 30 percent of our camping trip with the other 70 percent coming directly from the members going on said trip. We had the option of paying for all of the trip or having our members pay more, but the IRHA Executive Board decided neither were good options. We chose not to cover all of the trip because we weren’t sure our funds would be able to sustain the costs. In addition to this, we did our best to be as inclusive as possible for the camping trip by not asking for more money, as many of our members mentioned they would not be able to afford to go should the price be raised.
IRHA prides itself in its ability to bring together all different kinds of people with varying opinions, which is why we hold ourselves to such a high standard when spending funds.
We make sure all resident’s voices are heard, should they choose to exercise that right, and then let democracy prevail by each area’s elected representative.
People enjoy coming to our meetings because IRHA provides a great atmosphere that isn’t too serious, but where things are still done properly and suitably debated when necessary with all opinions welcomed.
If you would like to join in on the process, stop by our meeting Monday at 6:15 pm in the Reitz Union Room 282.
We hope to see you there!
Sean Johnson is the IRHA president.
Editor's note: This column refers to this letter to the editor http://www.alligator.org/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article_74df9a6a-bed9-11df-81c1-001cc4c03286.html
