Students’ Union releases audited financials online

By Fabian Mayer, July 30 2015 —

The Students’ Union wants to make it easier for students to see where their money goes. The organization plans to make its audited financials and supporting documents prepared for Students’ Legislative Council available online.

Until now, the SU has only posted a two-page summary of their financials on their website. Supporting documents were only available to those involved in the SU or campus media outlets.

SU vice-president operations and finance Sarah Pousette promised greater transparency as part of her election campaign.

“Something that I recognized coming to the Students’ Union from the outside is that accessibility of information is really important,” Pousette said.

She hopes students will take more interest in the SU as a result of the increase in available information.

“I wanted to make it more accessible to them to be able to find that information all year and to be able to see what the Students’ Union is doing all the time,” Pousette said.

Pousette isn’t sure why the audited financials haven’t been posted before, but believes they will help students get a better idea of what the SU does.

“[It] will let them understand the details of how we are following our budget and doing what we say we’re going to do,” Pousette said.

According to Pousette, students have requested to see the statements in the past.

“I do believe that students want more information and they want to understand how we work.”

Pousette isn’t worried about students finding irregularities with the SU’s bookkeeping when they look through the audited financials.

“Not at all. I totally believe we are very transparent as an organization. This simply shows students that we are,” Pousette said. “I think it will give students confidence in what we’re doing.”

The audited financials can be found at  www.su.ucalgary.ca/about/more/financial/