Referendum Would Emasculate Council Committees

At the first real Undergraduate Council meeting on October 27, the issue of our budget came up as the first order of business. The new members (approximately 75 percent of the council) were baffled, but we tried to stay tuned. The Undergraduate Council budget is approximately $120,000 a year, a considerable sum brought about mainly by a payment of $20 on everyone's term bill. The constitution breaks council money into three funds: grants, committee and operations. The constitution in Article V, Section 2, says specifically, "No less than 60 percent of the council's finances shall go to the grants process." It says "no less than" because the original writers of the constitution knew that student issues change from year to year, and that the council for that year should decide within a reasonable range how much goes to each committee fund.

Vice President Lamelle D. Rawlins '99 wants to change that reasonable range to "at least 65 percent" with her referendum. While the percentage may be small, it will nonetheless cut deeply into other committee funds.

Rawlins clearly stated during the intense budget debate in full council that she wanted more money to go to the Student Grants Fund -- even at the expense of reducing the capability of the Campus Life and Student Affairs Committees to enhance student social life and fund solutions to student concerns. We made a compromise in the council to set aside 63 percent of this year's budget to grants as a trial run to see if the other committees could still operate effectively with a smaller amount of money. Rawlins agreed to the compromise. Now she is trying to make a campaign issue out of raising the grants percentage even more, though the trial year that she agreed to has barely begun.

The student body needs to be asked this: Did you like the free food at the Harvard-Yale Tailgate? Did you like the Battle of the Bands and free beer in Loker after the game? Did you like that the Student Affairs Committee allocated $1,000 to pay for anonymous HIV testing for undergraduates who otherwise would have to pay? Did you like $1 council shuttles to the airport for Thanksgiving break? Do you think these are worthwhile expenditures? If so, then students should vote no on Rawlins' referendum, because if the first referendum passes, we can expect less of all of these services.

I am not saying that granting money to student groups is not important; it is very important. And since it can already change from year to year depending on the sense of the council, a constitutional referendum is unnecessary. I feel this year's percentage is appropriate for all committees. But some members of the council worry that we are not always using student money wisely in promoting the student events that we put on. In short, they are afraid. They do not understand that opportunity and risk go hand in hand. In the council, the benefits of greater campus unity far outweigh the potential losses. The council has the responsibility to control and effectively use student money. The more money the council earmarks to student groups, the more it becomes just a clearinghouse for student money and the less it is capable of doing what a real student government should do: Make student life on campus better by itself without always having to defer to student groups. --Thomas P. Windom '00