By Raven TysonAssistant City Editor
What would you do with roughly $14 million?
That’s the question Associated Students vice president of financecandidates Ryan Tolentino and Felix Diaz will have to answer.
Tolentino, an information and decision systems senior, is thecurrent vice chair of the A.S. Finance Board. Tolentino alsorepresents the College of Business on A.S. Council.
Diaz, a criminal justice senior, is a member of MovimientoEstudiantil Chicano de Aztlan and a former A.S. MEChA representativeon council.
If elected, Tolentino said he wants to have open communicationbetween himself, the seven College Councils and other studentorganizations. He wants to have an open door policy where any studentcan go to him with an event idea, but not necessarily enough money.
“I want to make sure I find every resource for them, whether ornot it be through Finance Board or other avenues such as theuniversity, the (SDSU) Foundation, Aztec Shops or through fundraising,” he said.
Also, Tolentino said he would like to have forums for studentsthat focus on investment, budgeting and debt.
Diaz said he would use his position to give student organizationsthe ability to get more money from A.S. by “cutting the red tape”that groups encounter.
“I know a lot of times money goes unused, and I know they dorecycle it right now as it is — still organizations are short,” Diazsaid. “The best way to do it is to take funds out of unnecessaryprograms that we may have on campus, or try to find other ways offunding.”
Both opponents have worked with budget items on various levels aswell.
Tolentino, in addition to being the vice chair of Finance Board,said he has worked as a student organization contact where he helpedthe groups with their budgets and helped revise the “How to SpendYour A.S. Dollars” handbook.
Diaz said he has sat in on Finance Board meetings and has gainedexperience as a member of MEChA. He said he worked with a $50,000budget for MEChA’s national conference last year and the NativeAmerican Student Alliance’s Pow Wow budget of $61,000 for this year.
Voting takes place next week.
