Narenkumar Thirmiya
VSG President Samuel Sliman and Vice President Kendelle Grubbs smile as they hear the 2023 VSG election results, as photographed on March 29, 2023. (Hustler Multimedia/Narenkumar Thirmiya)
UPDATED: This article was updated on Sept. 12, 2023, at 2:30 p.m. CDT to include a comment from VSG advisors.
In an Aug. 28 email to the student body, Vanderbilt Student Government released an expenditures report going back to Aug. 7, 2020, alongside drafts of a new VSG constitution and statutes. Of the $257,427.70 VSG has spent over the past three years, 32% has gone toward internal spending, while 58% has gone toward external spending and 10% toward miscellaneous charges.
Internal costs include expenses such as travel fees, executive board dinners (the president, vice president, chief of staff and speaker of the senate), retreat costs, merchandise and catering for meetings, while external costs include student organization co-sponsorships, donations, elections, speaker events, Lyft codes for students and public events. The miscellaneous charges include 155 unmarked charges and 74 unsortable charges due to a lack of detail in their description.
“The biggest thing was just the amount of unmarked charges. Part of why we decided to make the treasurer an elected position is because we want to center them more in responsibility for this and have them be accountable to the students,” VSG President Sam Sliman, a senior, said. “Talking to past treasurers, they have felt a little bit disconnected from this process.”
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