Two female members of the Student Association finance committee defended allegations last week that the group has been a “boys’ club.”
The two female senators, both elected this year, said their colleagues’ calls this week to dismantle the group’s male-dominated mindset were unfounded. Last week, the SA elected four female senators to next year’s committee.
That will make next year’s committee, which divides a $1 million budget among nearly 300 organizations, almost evenly split between men and women for the first time in several years.
The powerful finance committee came under fire this month when a post from former committee aide, sophomore Maya Weinstein, surfaced on Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s website, Lean In, about her time working on the committee last year. She alleged that male group members made sexist comments.
Sen. Sherin Nassar, ESIA-U, brought up the allegations on Monday as she tried to stand out from Caroline Bourque’s run for vice chair. Nassar highlighted how she would focus on adding a new perspective as the committee’s second-in-command in her speech before the SA voted on who to choose.
“One of the things the finance committee has been known for last year was being a boys’ club so what I want to offer is a different perspective,” Nassar, a former page designer at The Hatchet, said at the meeting Monday night.
But incoming vice chair Bourque, also one of the non-voting members this year, said that while she sees diversity on the committee as being important, ultimately all student organizations are allocated money using the same strict guidelines.
“I gave my opinion all the time and they didn’t stop me at all. We had lots of times where my opinion mattered,” Bourque said.
The other female member, Fatma El-Taguri, said although she did not know any of the members before she started in the fall, she felt welcome entering the committee. She added that finance committee members did not treat her differently because of her gender.
Ryan Counihan, who has led the committee for two years, said the group has stepped up female recruiting efforts but that it was challenging to convince women to serve on the committee.
As chair this year, Counihan said they tried to offset the group’s gender disparity by bringing on two female members in the fall during the SA’s annual freshman recruitment rounds.
“At the end of the day it’s an open process that anyone can run for and when people have concerns they’re welcome to run and try and change it,” Counihan said.
Incoming SA Finance Committee Chair Ben Pryde also shot down the accusations. He argued that this year’s annual financial allocations were decided by a group of 12 students that included two women, two international students and two graduate students.
He said he doesn’t believe the committee’s makeup next year will change its operations.
“I think we had a great dynamic this year and we’ll continue having a great dynamic next year and we’re going to keep improving our process, making it more professionalized and keeping ourselves more responsible,” said Pryde, who was also vice chair this year.
Pryde will lead the finance committee after five male chairs, including former Sens. Ryan Counihan, Alex Mizenko, John Bennett and Chris Clark. The most recent female finance committee chair was Julie Bindelglass in 2009.
