The Undergraduate Finance Committee passed a non-binding resolution Monday in support of streamlining the process by which campus groups apply for funding. Proposed changes include a common funding application as well as biweekly meetings of the UFC during Fall and Winter terms.
While the UFC voted in support of the changes, the proposals still must be approved by member organizations, which include the Committee on Student Organizations, Programming Board, Collis Governing Board, Student Assembly, Greek Leadership Council, Class Councils, Special Programs and Events Committee and club sports.
Committee member Will Hix '12 proposed a common funding application that he said would make the process clearer both for groups seeking funding and for UFC organizations allocating budgets. The application would be for groups looking to COSO, Programming Board, Collis Governing Board or SPEC for funding.
Hix, the Assembly representative to the UFC, said he has been working on the proposal since the Fall with Elise Smith '13, another member of the Assembly.
Hix said the Assembly supports the proposal, but other organizations must agree on the terms for how funding for various events is divided. For example, currently a COSO organization that wishes to hold an event in Collis Commonground could apply to COSO, Programming Board and Collis Governing Board separately for funding.
"There haven't been any major objections," Hix said. "There is concern about how it's being implemented."
The proposed common application eliminates the option of co-sponsorship among UFC member organizations. Currently, when groups apply for funding from multiple sources, each organization lacks the necessary information to determine adequate funds for each event, according to Hix.
"You don't know how the other groups will act," Hix said.
As the proposal stands, any events hosted by a COSO group would receive funding from COSO, events held in Collis Center would receive funding from Collis Governing Board and the rest would receive funding from Programming Board. Any event with a budget of more than $5,000 would continue to receive funding from SPEC.
The suggested changes are currently being discussed by UFC member organizations, Hix said.
"The alterations to co-sponsorship guidelines would necessarily impact the budgets of every UFC organization, so that requires very careful thinking about the way they have allocated funds in the past," Hix said.
Other steps Hix said he is hoping to take include moving the application online to Blackboard to make the process easier and more efficient. Hix has also brought up the possibility of posting funding results for budgets of more than $1,000 online as a reference for other groups.
Former Student Body President Frances Vernon '10 pushed for UFC reform in her platform, and described the existing application process as "flawed" in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"I think this is one very constructive change amongst a few others that should hopefully be made over the next year," she said.
UFC Chair Kathryn Arffa '11 said she personally approves of the changes, especially in light of the College's budget reconciliation process.
"Our organizations are going to need to act more fiscally responsible," she said. "I think this common funding application is completely in line with that."
The UFC also approved a proposal to increase the number of meetings during Fall and Winter terms to make them biweekly. Arffa said she thinks this change will make it easier for the UFC to hold the member organizations who receive funding in Spring more accountable throughout the year.
"As it stands now, we hand them money Spring term and we don't hear back from them until [the following] Spring term," she said.
Student Body President Eric Tanner '11 said in an e-mail that he has not yet become involved in the UFC changes, and declined to comment on them.
