Sikander Khan has stepped down from his position as treasurer. He's not talking, and for now, at least, there won't be much news on what finally motivated him to resign.
A few questions still linger, though. After all this time, we're still amazed at how the SA system has been set up for failure. We're still confused as to why the police suddenly dropped the case and simply treated it as an internal matter.
Roman satirist Juvenal once wrote in his native Latin: "quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" As the millennia have passed, a loose translation of the line has wormed its way into our collective unconscious.
Who watches the watchmen?
At this point, nobody does in SA. We've entrusted them over $3.5 million, and they can feasibly spend it on a whim with very little oversight. The system is easily corruptible and obviously broken.
Let's put it this way: had Khan and SA President JoAnna Datz been on friendly terms, this whole issue may have flown under the radar. We were a figurative inch from watching $300,000 of student funds vaporize.
Now our student government must not only make the figurative attempts to look better, but also make substantive changes to the way it governs itself. If not, the damage done by the Virtual Academix fiasco might be permanent.
First, a new rule must be implemented into the SA constitution that provides radically enhanced oversight for large contracts.
Any service or products that SA buys that will cost over a certain amount should be reviewed by a permanent professional at SA whose job is to ensure that contracts are fair and that SUNY guidelines have been followed.
If this person doesn't sign on contracts along with e-board members, then the contract should be voided. This position could either be filled by a professional already in SA or be made new. The person should not be a student.
Whether or not they decide to go with our idea, Travis Nemmer, next year's SA president, and the new e-board must sit down and decide on a plan to fix this problem.
The Senate also needs to step up its game. We understand that they're students as well and don't necessarily have the time to review every piece of spending, but that's not an excuse for letting something of this magnitude pass under their noses. Now they need to work with the incoming e-board to protect the money we've allowed them to handle.
Yet a question continues to nag us. Where have the police been in all this? At first, the University Police were called in to talk about concerns with the Virtual Academix, but they quickly gave it back to SA as an internal matter.
There is much more information now, however. While it's not apparent exactly what happened, there is surely enough information to warrant a second look. Whether from within SA or by Virtual Academix, on some level, it looks like there was some sort of foul play going on.
We aren't in the game of knocking down Khan. We don't want the police involved to ruin him or any other person, for that matter. What we do want is for the truth to come out and for anyone who did commit a crime to be punished. We don't know if Khan did anything legally wrong at all, but somewhere along the lines it sure looks like somebody may have tried to defraud SA, and in turn, us.
That deserves at least a significant investigation.
