David Luzzatto

🌍 Who I Am

💼 VP Finance, Political Science Students’ Association – For the past year, I have served as Vice-President Finance of the largest departmental association under the AUS. I manage a budget of nearly $20,000 and represent the financial interests of 1,900 students, with a significant portion of that budget coming from funding initiatives I have led directly.

🏛️ Departmental Representative on the AUS Financial Management Committee – Through my role at the PSSA, I have served on the FMC and helped allocate over $60,000 to departmental associations. I have worked closely with the AUS VP Finance on a weekly basis, reviewing applications, weighing priorities, and making concrete decisions about how student money is distributed.

🗳️ Member of the AUS Legislative Council – I have served for two years on Council, first representing all first-year Arts students and this year representing the financial interests of the AUS. This role gave me direct experience with budget ratification, financial oversight, and Council-level accountability for AUS executives.

📢 What I Want to Do

💸 Put Student Money Back to Work – The AUS has accumulated several hundreds of thousands of dollars in rollover funds and Frosh profits, well beyond recommended emergency reserves. Tens of thousands of dollars collected from student fees sit unused each year. I want to responsibly reinvest this money so it directly benefits Arts students.

🏫 Increase FMC Funding to $100,000 – I want to significantly increase the Financial Management Committee’s budget to $100,000 so departments can better support academic and social programming. With over 30 departments under the AUS, not all of which are equally active, allocating funds through the FMC allows the AUS to direct money where it will be used most effectively, prioritize smaller departments, and reward concrete projects rather than simply writing larger automatic cheques.

🔍 Improve FMC Transparency and Accessibility – The FMC is the primary way departments benefit from the AUS, yet its processes remain unclear to many. I want to overhaul the FMC application guide so expectations are precise, criteria are explicit, and departments understand how funding decisions are made.

📊 Reevaluate External Financial and Auditing Contracts – Every year, tens of thousands of dollars are paid to external financial and auditing service providers. I want to ensure these services and the prices at which they are billed remain competitive on the market and best support the interests of the AUS.

🔁 Question the Financial Status Quo – The AUS has long operated under a financial status quo that prioritizes continuity over reassessment. I want to question why money sits unused, why certain contracts persist unchanged, and whether every dollar collected through student tuition is actually serving students. My goal is to make sure every cent spent by the AUS makes sense.