The Undergraduate Finance Committee found itself at the center of campus discussion when it sanctioned Student Assembly in the fall for misuse of funds, but few students fully understand how the UFC works.
UFC sanctioned the Assembly in the fall after the group spent $1,876 of UFC allocated funds on customized apparel for 23 individuals and $966.28 on an invite-only lunch event, as well as a formal that was later cancelled.
In the Assembly presidential and vice presidential debate this April, both of the candidates for president discussed the role of the UFC and its relationship with SA. They also pointed out that most students do not understand exactly how this funding body works.
The UFC distributes funds to nine campus organizations: Collis Governing Board, Council on Class Officers, Council on Student Organizations, Elections Planning and Advisory Committee, Greek Leadership Council, Programming Board, Student Assembly, Special Programs and Events Committee and Green Key Society.
UFC’s budget comes from the student activities fee charged to each student’s tuition every term, currently an $83 charge, UFC chair Carolyn Parrish ’16 said. The fees are combined and allocated to the nine groups every spring. This year, the funds totalled up to $1.08 million, Parrish said.
Reilly Johnson ’16, Student Assembly press chair, said that the UFC allocated less money than previous years this term. The funds changed from a term to term budget to a lump sum for the 2014-2015 year. She said that this was likely a result of the budgetary problems the Assembly had faced in the past year.
UFC allocated $40,000 to the Assembly for the 2014-2015 year which was considerably less than the $70,500 the Assembly hads requested. In 2013-2014, the UFC allocated the Assembly $58,000, in 2012-2012, $69,500 and in 2011-2012, $76,250.
Overall, Parrish said each funded body tends to have a slight increase in funding per year as tuition, and thus the student activities fee, rises. Increases in funding can also come when groups have significant new ideas or proposals for the next year, she said. The standard annual increase in budget for each group, she said, is two or three percent.
Programming Board, due to the large-scale nature of its events, usually asks for the most money and the committee therefore allocates money to them last, Parrish said. She said that it consistently uses its entire budget every year.
“We just want to make sure every group gets money proportional to its scope,” Parrish said. “And we have to ensure that every group is following the spirit of the student activities fee. The events have to be open to all of campus, they can’t be exclusive at all because the students are paying for it.”
Parrish said that though the review process for UFC funding is strict, occasionally funds are misused. She cited the fall sanctioning of the Assembly, which she said was problematic because every student on campus essentially paid for apparel for a small number.
Johnson also noted that the Assembly’s new leadership will be “passionate” about making their expenditures public in order to avoid future claims of misallocation of funds. The Assembly also added a new role of vice treasurer in order to assist the treasurer to ensure the efficient management of funds.
Though Johnson said that the purchasing of the apparel was “in opposition to the spirit of the student activities fee,” the internal expenditure for Assembly gear was outlined in the budget and approved by UFC at the time.
The UFC keeps historical records and is in contact with the College treasurer, which holds the groups requesting funds accountable, Parrish said.
“It’s very numerical, it’s very systematized, and everyone is expected to be very objective in their decision-making,” Parrish said.
Due to the nature of the organizations getting funds from the UFC, students on campus can also play a role in accountability, Parrish said.
“Everyone on campus is watching you, all of these events are public, they’re student activities,” Parrish said
Every spring, representatives from the nine funded student organizations first meet with the UFC chair, before meeting with the committee to discuss their budgets, Parrish said. This year, she said the preliminary discussion was a daylong process in the form of a retreat held in the Collis Center, which she called essential.
She said that representatives present their proposals to the UFC chair two weeks prior to their first meeting. The chair, who serves as a moderator figure, audits the proposals and adds any comments.
Two UFC meetings this term are open to student organizations and designated for budget planning, Parrish said. While the first meeting is largely focused on policy questions directed at the entire group and individual leaders, the second meeting is when the budget is actually allocated, she said.
Chase Mertz ’16, a member of the Class of 2016 Class Council, who has sat in on UFC budgetary meetings, said that class council’s funding remains relatively consistent other than slight increases due to tuition increases. He noted that the UFC budgetary process was strict.
Mertz said that class council requested the same amount of money as it did in the previous year. He said that the group did not ask for any more than what they needed, which was not the norm for other organizations. UFC granted class council’s requested amount.
“After much discussion, people kind of come to their own conclusions about how much each organization deserves,” Parrish said.
Each UFC member sends their budget idea for each of the nine groups to the chair, who records the averages and the medians, Parrish said. Committee members then rank the groups from most to least essential to fund.
The budgetary process begins with the group designated as most important to fund. Parrish called the voting process streamlined. She said that each member starts with their hand up as she reads potential funding amounts and puts his or her hand down “as soon as an individual feels uncomfortable with funding.” As soon of half of the members do so, the chair records the amount.
The organizations provide updates on a termly basis to the UFC, Parrish said. Members of UFC also keep an eye on campus emails and contact group representatives if the events are “exclusive.” If the event does not seem to be open to all students, the UFC will hold meetings immediately to determine how to get funds paid back, Parrish said.
While she trusts campus organizations’ leaders, she noted that there is room for funds to “slip through the cracks.” She said the UFC does not hesitate to call out organizations for irresponsible spending.
“There’s too many eyes and ears on campus, too many people in the UFC and associated with the UFC who know the rules not to have this check and balance going on,” Parrish said.
She noted another sanctioning incident involved this term’s Pharaoh’s Ball, hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and funded by the Greek Leadership Council, which gains its funds from UFC. Parrish said the Pharaoh’s Ball both cost an “exorbitant” amount of money and was exclusive.
Parrish said, however, that the GLC immediately responded to the UFC inquiry, admitted they had misused the UFC funds and tapped into a bank account of dues from affiliated students to pay back the funds.
“It’s unfortunate that money abuse does occur, but I think everything in the past has been handled very well,” Parrish said.
Parrish emphasized that the allocation of funds to all organizations is fair. She noted the committee members represent many facets of campus and that she trusts each individual member to put aside their affiliations and approach voting without bias.
“There’s a strong precedent that’s set to be objective, to be fair, to be equitable and to have high integrity, and it’s something we really enforce,” Parrish said.
Correction appended (May 19, 2015): A previous version of this article stated that last year's UFC chair Eli Derrow’15 started the current voting process. The process was in place before Derrow served as UFC chair.
