After a months-long delay, the University will transition its financial management system for campus clubs from the Student Union Management Systems to Slate by the end of June 2020, Executive Senator Jake Rong ’21 reported during the Sept. 22 Senate meeting.

SUMS is the Student Union’s financial management system through which club leaders can request funding, reimbursements and payment for their organizations’ activities per the Department of Student Activities website. This system, however, “was becoming outdated and its technological life was expiring,” Assistant Dean of Students Stephanie Grimes wrote in an Aug. 9 email to club leaders that announced the University’s upcoming transition to Slate.

“We have spent several months working with staff from across campus to build our new and improved system which will hopefully prove to make your lives easier as a club leader,” she explained, referring to Slate.

Former Union Treasurer Adrian Ashley ’20 spoke about Slate at last semester’s State of the Union, echoing Grimes’ sentiment when he said, “The system is a lot more straightforward than SUMS.”

Replacing SUMS with Slate was scheduled to occur at the beginning of this semester, but in a Sept. 10 email to club leaders, Grimes announced that the implementation had been delayed. “After much deliberation on the impact, progress and updates of the new replacement financial system to support clubs, we have decided to postpone the implementation of the new system, Slate, until later in the year,” Grimes wrote. The “complexity” and “detail” required for developing the project “has delayed the progress forward,” she explained.

Her email did not indicate when the transition would now occur. At the Sept. 22 Senate meeting, Rong, also the Senate representative to the Allocations Board, removed some of that ambiguity, reporting that the transition would “definitely” occur by the end of this fiscal year and potentially by the spring semester, “depending on how quickly Student Activities is able to sort [the transition] out.”

Brandeis’ fiscal years begin on July 1 and run until June 30, per the 2019 Year End Memorandum.

Grimes did not respond to the Justice’s request for comment by press time.


—Editor’s Note: Senator-at-Large Nancy Zhai ’22 is a News Staff Writer, and Foster Mods Senator Trevor Filseth ’20 is a Forum Staff Writer.

—Editor’s Note: Emily Blumenthal contributed reporting.