Following recommendations made by the Committee on Diversity and Community at Dartmouth, the College is looking into the way it allocates funds to cultural affinity groups.
The CDCD report, released two and a half weeks ago, called for the Office of Student Activities to "seek to ensure that cultural and ethnic affinity activities and avocational interest groups are appropriately funded," and recommended the Dean of the College's office examine the funding it provides to student organizations.
"Certain groups have, from the report's point of view, a bigger claim on funds than other groups because of their contributions to the College," Dean of the College Lee Pelton said.
Cultural affinity groups like the Dartmouth Asian Organization, the Korean American Students Association, La Alianza Latina and Native Americans at Dartmouth apply to the Council on Student Organizations for funding.
The Afro-American Society receives money directly from the Dean of the College's Office. It is the only cultural affinity group funded directly by the College, and has been so since its creation in 1967, Pelton said.
According to the CDCD report, the number of cultural organizations has increased steadily over the past few years and the current system that requires these groups to apply to COSO for funds promotes the misconception that cultural affinity groups and hobby groups are equivalent.
"Affinity groups really have been vying with hobby-type or recreational groups in terms of resource allocation," Stanford Roman, chair of the CDCD, said. "It would be helpful to look at that allocation and restructure it because cultural affinity groups should not be vying with groups such as the chess club."
COSO funds more than 70 student organizations, including the cultural affinity groups, the Solar Racing Team, Asgard and the Bridge Club. The council is composed of four students from each class, two faculty members, one upperclass dean and one member of the Dean of the College's office.
COSO receives its money from the Undergraduate Finance Committee, which distributes money collected from the $35 student activity fee. Last year COSO received $51, 593 to allocate and this year it has $51,600.
"The requests that come in far exceed the amount of money that we able to provide," Tim Moore, director of Student Activities, said. "I think there is a sense out there that the more diverse the campus has become, the more difficult it has been to meet some of the needs of our student population."
Moore said COSO hopes to make sure the process is fair for all student organizations, but it does not want to "just simply put the money out there and not hold organizations accountable for how they spend that money."
COSO, the Student Activities Office and the cultural affinity groups will examine the funding issue in the upcoming months, Moore said, but added that the changes may take some time.
Leaders of most cultural affinity groups said they had no major complaints about the current system, but they felt some changes could be made.
Pablo Barrutia '96, treasurer of La Alianza Latina, said he thinks the COSO process is generally fair.
He said there are a variety of options for funding on campus including COSO, the Programming Board, the Dickey Endowment and the McSpadden Public Issues Forum,which is funding from the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences.
La Alianza President Ramyar Rossoukh '96 said he thinks COSO funding is usually fair, but, "I think some changes need to be made."
He said the process sometimes seems arbitrary because there is little contact between COSO and the individual groups applying for funding. "They don't have any idea about the nature of our needs." he said.
Rossoukh said he does think it is unfair for groups like La Alianza to compete with hobby groups because the cultural groups offer important things to the College.
"We're necessary on this campus. We're needed," he said. "Ideally we would like to be given a budget like the AAm is given."
Class of 1996 Dean Sylvia Langford, one of the advisers for the AAm, said "[The AAm] has a very generous budget, but it isn't just funds that are used for the African-American community."
AAm President Zola Mashariki '94 said the AAm's budget is the largest of all the cultural affinity groups because of the organization's size and the number of activities they sponsor.
She said the AAm's money provides academic, social and cultural activities that serve to educate the entire College community about African-American issues, including panel discussions, speakers, the Black Praxis publication, the Black Underground Theater Association and the dance troupe Ujima.
There are about 255 African-American students at the College, representing 5.9 percent of the student body; 384 Asian- Americans (8.9 percent); 185 Latinos (4.3 percent); and 115 Native Americans (2.7 percent), according to the College News Service.
KASA President Sangwoo Lee '94 said in general, he is pleased with COSO's funding procedures.
He said although COSO does not always provide the organization with all the money they request, KASA generally has enough money to fund the programs it feels are important.
Lee said as long as COSO can differentiate between the cultural groups and the hobby groups when deciding on funding, he does not see a major problem with the current system.
KASA uses its funding to hold events such as Korean Culture Night, a lunar New Year celebration and speakers such as the South Korean Consulate General, Lee said.
Mashariki, AAm president, said the other cultural affinity groups also should have set funds like the AAm receives.
"I think they should have a set budget like the AAm based on their size and their needs," Mashariki said. "They are addressing the needs of the campus."
