STUDENT COUNCIL APPROVES BUDGET FOR COLLEGE AID

The following report on the institution of a Harvard College Budget was approved by the Student Council last night.

The report was submitted by a Committee of the Student Council, headed by J. F. Barnes '27, after an extensive investigation of present conditions in the University. Their recommendations in brief are that the Philanthropic expenses incurred by various societies in the University be handled as a unit by a committee, the chairman of which shall be the "Freasurer of the Student Council. All the money for these and class expenses is to be collected in a single drive conducted by the newly created committee.

The full text of the report follows:

"It has been suggested that a Harvard College Budget, to be administered and collected by the Student Council, and intended to cover the philanthropies expenses which are annually presented to the College, would solve many of the difficulties which have in past years rendered such philanthropy uncertain. After an investigation of the theoretical advantages of the plan and after having become to a certain degree conversant with similar methods employed at Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth, this committee wishes to report in favor of the plan.

Finance Committee Must Be Small

"The advantages which would arise from such a Budget are in same cases intangible, and in almost every case directly dependent upon the methods which may be used to carry out the plan. They seem to be principally as follows:

"The organization of a single drive could be rendered infinitely more efficient if placed in the hands of a responsible Student Council.

"Hitherto the College has been asked each year to contribute several times to individual drives for money. The duplication of effort in collection and the annoyance and inconvenience caused to the individual student have redounded almost without exception to the detriment of the drives concerned. One drive advertised as absolutely the only drive, would be more likely to meet with a generous response on the part of the student body.

"If it be agreed that the maintenance of any single one of the charities which are in part supported by the College depends as much upon the moral support as the financial support secured, this new plan will recommend itself at once. A contribution coming from the Student Council, the duly elected representatives of the student body, will have more significance than would any contribution collected in a desultory manner by a committee of students

"Upon the organization of the Budget and its machinery for collection and expenditure depends a great part of the success of the plan. A great part of whatever failure has occurred in recent years can be attributed to the inevitable duplication of effort and to the absence of the best organization possible. Toward this end, the following scheme sees to this committee to be best adapted to the exigencies of the situation.

"Both the collection and the expenditure of the Budget should be delegated by the Student Council to a small and compact committee which it should appoint. It seems tenable that the Treas- urer of the Student Council should automatically assume the chairmanship of this committee and that he should be chosen with this office and its duties in view Three other members should be appointed and it is strongly to be recommended that the respective treasurers of the three upper classes should be represented, either as active or as ex-officio members of this committee. This body should be in complete control of the Budget, subject only to the authority of the Student Council itself, and should be responsible for the collection and the expenditure of the funds involved.

"A second committee should be appointed by the Student Council, of which each member of the Finance Committee should automatically become a member. This committee should be chosen from the four classes which will be asked to contribute to the funds. Two points are very strongly to be considered in the appointment of this committee: first, that it should be small in size, restricted to a workable unit of 21 or 22 men; second, that these men should be chosen by the Student Council not in any sense as a recognition of services or merit to the College, or of individual prominence for social or athletic reasons.

"The first point is readily understood. With proper organization, a few suggestions for which will be indicated below, the collection of the Budget should not require the work of a very great number of men. It would be carried out with much greater efficiency by a small body of actively interested men than by a huge committee of men which it would be difficult to direct. The restricted size of this committee will add to the honor involved in appointment to it.

"The second point cannot, in the opinion of this committee, be too strongly stressed. If such a plan as this is to be a success, it must be conducted on a purely business basis, and those students who are best qualified to work well toward this end will be the desirable members of the committee. In the fall, it will be necessary for members of this committee to spend a week or ten days in collecting funds when the work will be difficult and exacting. Men engaged in athletics, or on publications, will hardly be able to give the amount of time which the work will require. The collection of the Budget will be made in such a way that the prominence of a name will have little advantage, while the diligence and industry of the individual will be more than vital.

Council Should Decide Quota

"The amount of the Budget seems a subject which the Student Council should decide for itself. It may vary from year to year; it is to be hoped that with the increasing stability of the Budget as a college institution, it may annually be increased to the full extent of the ability of the student body to contribute to such charities as the Student Council may see fit to support.

"This committee has investigated certain of the annual funds which are usually subscribed by the College. The Phillips Brooks House will expect $4,000 from the College, and we see no reason why this should not be guaranteed to it by the Student Council. The Class Funds will require a varying amount, subject to certain difficulties which will be explained below, which can roughly be estimated as $4,000 per annum. The Student Council itself should have the expenditure of certain funds in its own hands, for the expenses of delegates to intercollegiate conference and for such incidental expenses as may arise during the year. This committee has agreed in estimating this to be $2000. Finally under the head of general charities, there should be set aside $5,000, this category to include the Student Friendship Fund, if the Student Council shall see fit to support this in the future, the Red Cross, Boston charities, and whatever expenses of a smlliar nature the Student Council shall decide through its Finance Committee to support.

"The matter of the inclusion of the class funds in the Budget presents no simple difficulties. The transition from one system to the other will undoubtedly work to the disadvantage of those classes which have already collected a fund for their college expenses. On the other hand, the merits of such inclusion seem so great that the difficulty assumes a minor significance. By arrangement with the treasurers of the incoming Freshman classes for the next three years, the transition may be completely effected by that date. This arrangement has already been suggested to the class of 1929. Perhaps the best solution of the more immediate problem, that of those classes already financed, 1927 and 1928, will consist in the contribution by each class treasurer of his funds to the Student Council Budget, the two funds being called upon jointly to meet the expenses which the class may as a unit incur.

Committee Investigates Camp Question

"Another matter which may well be considered in this connection is the suggestion that the Student Council should equip and maintain a summer camp of philanthropic nature for poor boys in Boston and the neighborhood. A committee consisting of Alexander Donald '27, chairman, Lawrence Coolidge '27, L. F. Daley '27, Austin Lamont '27, A. J. Cassatt '27 and C. G. T. Lundell '27, has been appointed to investigate the possibilities of such a plan. Upon the report of this committee to the Student Council, it may well decide whether or not to support the plan, and if this is decided upon favorably, the sum total of the budget should be changed accordingly.

"The sum of the incidental expenses itemized above is $15,000. With the possible inclusion of the fund for the summer camp, this would be raised to $20,000. It may be advisable, in the opinion of this committee to start the figure at the latter figure whether the camp is approved of not, while on the other hand it seems exceedingly dubious policy to give such a new venture as this too high a goal. This is a matter which should properly be left to the discretion of the Student Council, or to that of the Finance Committee which will actually have to collect the Budget.

"In the collection of the Budget lies its ultimate success or failure. The actual men who are engaged in carrying this out will be in such direct contact with the conditions and obstacles involved that they must to a considerable degree be allowed latitude in the procedure which they may employ. This committee has certain very definite recommendations, based on the experience of similar drives in past years and upon the experience of other colleges with a Budget, which are enumerated below.

Drive Should Be Organized Early

"The whole drive should be organized, both committees appointed and complete arrangements made, in the spring of each year. The actual collection will come in the early fall and will be greatly facilitated if the major part of the work of organization has already been completed.

"The first drive for funds will be conducted by the Budget Committee, of