In its 2007-2008 report released this past weekend, the Undergraduate Finance Committee, which distributes $866,000 in student activities fees each year, created a new group to fund large campus events and for the first time allocated money to three other previously unfunded groups. The changes resulted in cuts in funding for the groups UFC traditionally supports.
The Council on Student Organizations received $61,000 less than last year, while Programming Board similarly lost $67,500. The Greek Leadership Council's budget was slashed $8,000, Collis Governing Board received $3,000 less, and Class Council lost about $1,000.
This year's overall UFC budget was slightly higher than last year's -- up $41,000 from last year's $825,000 as a result of tuition increases. At the same time, the UFC allocated $12,000 to club sports, $9,000 to local service groups run out of the Tucker Foundation and nearly $13,000 to a new Student Life Fund, which will help to augment staff and support costs shouldered by the College as it allocates student funds, Associate Dean of Student Life Joe Cassidy said.
The traditionally funded groups that saw significant budget cuts also transferred their responsibility to fund large events to a new Special Programs and Events Committee, which will take responsibility for funding campus events requiring over $5,000. The group will be comprised of representatives from campus organizations with voting members on the UFC, as well as one at-large member and a non-voting chair. Yasmin Mandviwala '08 will serve as chair during the 2007-2008 period.
The group was given $148,000 with which to fund projects in its first year.
The formation of SPEC comes in response to the recommendations made by the Student Governance Review Task Force in its May 15 report. The task force, convened last winter after the controversy surrounding student government efficacy, called for the creation of a "governance council" to increase communication between funding groups.
Though the task force had previously discussed stronger proposals, including the formation of a centralized funding body with a budget of $400,000, these proposals were met with only mixed enthusiasm during the task force's May 11 meeting with the UFC, task force Chair Kapil Kale '07 said. As a result, the task force chose to include only the governance council proposal in its final report.
"[After that meeting] we realized that maybe the UFC wasn't ready for something like that, and needed a stepping stone," Kale said. "I'm really happy that they were able to jump on something that we saw happening two years down the road."
UFC Chair and Student Body Vice President Jacqueline Loeb '08 said that the UFC ultimately decided that the communication body was not a strong enough solution to the problems with allocation inefficiency.
The decision to provide funding to club sports and Tucker local service organizations comes as a result of high student involvement and a history of underfunding in both organizations, Loeb said, calling the stipends a "good starting point" for UFC funding to these groups.
"[The student activities fee] should benefit the largest number of students on campus," she said. "We took it upon ourselves to take action to provide [these groups] with funding."
Student Assembly received $70,000, an amount exactly equal to the stipend received by the group last year. Loeb said that the Assembly's allocation reflects the fact that this year's Assembly budget was lower because of current Student Body President Tim Andreadis '07 reduced request last year.
