Despite More Money, Still a Struggle to Fund Student Groups

This year, Brown's Finance Committee distributed a whopping $686,406 collected from student fees, giving the Debating Union $9,440, the Ball Room Dancing Club $3,922, and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered Alliance $3,800.

At the same time, Yale's student-run Undergraduate Organizations Funding Committee (UOFC) distributed only $44,000 giving an unusually low limit of $1,000 per registered group.

Brown's annual distribution of $686,406, Cornell's $480,000, the University of Pennsylvania's (Penn) $474,900 and Columbia's $460,000 all seem to dwarf the Harvard Undergraduate Council's Finance Committee's $126,500 outlay. Princeton's midyear budget of $26,000 and Yale's $44,000 seems to pale in comparison.

William E. Conway, Undergraduate Assembly treasurer at Penn, could not imagine having a budget as low as Harvard's or Yale's.

"We don't have enough to spend with $400,000, so it surprises me that they operate with such small budgets," he said.

But the funds channeled through the student governments are only part of the picture. Yale groups can also get funds directly from academic departments, from college masters (similar to Harvard's House masters) and from the college president.

According to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, Harvard University spends about $1.2 million in unrestricted funds annually on student activities. Besides the council, major funding sources include the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations and the Office for the Arts.

Many Mouths to Feed

Most student governments with larger budgets take responsibility for funding a wide variety of student activities. Brown's Finance Committee dishes out money to club sports, the band and Brown Television. Penn's Student Activities Committee spends money on politically active groups and publications. Columbia's Union of Student Organizations provides interest-free loans to student groups.

Yale's student government, with its $44,000 budget does not fund similar groups or provide loans.

Last spring, Harvard's Undergraduate Council distributed about $23,000 to 90 groups for the second semester, providing a maximum grant of $900 and a minimum of $23.50.

Never Enough

One problem that is omnipresent for budgets of all sizes is that the demand for funds always outnumbers funds available. The Student Union of Washington University in St. Louis has a huge budget of $740,000 for student groups, yet student body president Peter B. Steffen says annually initial group requests total eight times the available funds.

"You can't please everybody--that's the lesson of any budgetary process," Steffen said. "It's all about competing interests."

Ben S. Kornfiend, treasurer of the Columbia College Student Council (CCSC), says while the number of student groups at Columbia increases every year, funding from the student activities fee has remained at the same level for five years, necessitating some tough decisions to be made. According to Alejandra C. Montenegro, Columbia's CCSC president, the assembly finally voted to increase next year's fee from $114 to $140.

Harvard undergraduates currently have theoption to pay a $20 annual fee for studentservices.

Spreading the Funds Around

Since student group wants consistently outweighfunding available to them, distributing money isoften an arduous task, and student governments areoften the target of sharp criticism.

Matthew R. Rothman, president of Yale CollegeStudent Union, a group that brings speakers tocampus, says his group needs at least $900 tobring in one speaker, so Yale's limit of $1,000 ayear is not nearly enough. Despite this, he says,the UOFC did not give the group the full $1,000.

"I think the [funding] process is quitearbitrary," Rothman says. "Their decisions aren'tconsistent for the same items for differentorganizations."

Rothman adds that the process of applicationfor the $1,000 is very rigorous.

Naftalis defends the UOFC's process. "I thinkit works well," he says, adding that the UOFCenjoys a close relationship with the UniversityAdministration.

Yale has a dean of undergraduate organizationswho helps choose UOFC board members, offersadvice, and handles the Committee's paperwork.

"The Dean helps us by giving us aninstitutional memory, a different perspective, andlegitimacy with student groups," Naftalis said."We're still autonomous and they can't overruleus, but we get the advantages of being in theDean's office."

But one disadvantage of being so closelyconnected to the university, Naftalis says, isthat the students do not determine the amount ofmoney the administration doles out.

"It becomes difficult to estimate how muchwe'll get from year to year, and that makes ithard to have long-range plans," he said.

Washington University's distribution of fundsis student-directed but that hasn't spared themfrom criticism.

The university's Student Union (SU) got intohot water a two years ago when their EntertainmentCommittee organized a reduced-fare bus trip to NewOrleans with SU funds and then sold all thetickets to their friends and acquaintances beforeadvertising the trip to the whole student body.

"It appeared they were literally andfiguratively taking us all for a ride," Steffensays. "We eventually made them hire another busfor other students and this year we made themcharge students full price."

Communication is the Key

In an attempt to improve their funding system,Washington University's Student Union increasedthe number of times student groups can apply forfunding from once a year to once a semester.

"Between semesters, plans change and leadershipchanges for individual groups," Steffen says."It's hard to know what's going to happen a yearafter they receive funding so we had some groupsthat spent all their money early in the year."

Yale's UOFC meets 10 times a year to allowgroups to continually ask for more money.

Columbia has tried to institutionalize theprocess, connecting student groups directly to thecommittee that distributes funding.

But Kornfeind, the CCSC's treasures, says eventhough group treasurers and presidents elect the12 members of the Union of Student Organizations(USO), the committee that distributes studentgroup funds, the outcome has not been consistentlysuccessful.

"Some USO members are not diligent aboutkeeping in touch with their assigned groups," hesays, explaining that communication problems haveplagues funding efforts.

Penn avoids that problem by giving theresponsibility of distributing funds to theirStudent Activities Committee (SAC), which consistsof all 150 treasurers of all registered studentgroups who vote on each group budget allocation.

While SAC elects an eight-member executiveboard to guide the allocation process, SAC ChairSteven J. Schorr says the composition of SAC"allows for a lot of people to have input."

Still, Steffen says the biggest problem atWashington University is ignorance about how thesystem works.

Naftalis finds that confusion over Yale'smyriad of funding sources, applications anddeadlines has led him to help redevelop thefunding handbook to explain the system and put allthe application forms in one place.

Columbia is moving towards the computerizationof forms so that groups can learn regulations onthe Internet and apply for funding by e-mail,Kornfeind says.

Regulations

The distribution process at Columbia is "verylong, very democratic and very inefficient,"Kornfeind says. He also admits that the processcan be "pretty arbitrary".

Four members of the USO have quit this semesterover disagreements.

Montenegro, Columbia's student president, saysshe believes the only way out of sticky argumentsis further standardization.

"Case-by-case decisions don't work, because weend up slighting budgets of groups that shouldn'tbe," she says.

But Yale has found strict guidelines entailother complications.

"Three years ago spending guidelines were verystrict," Naftalis says, explaining that there werespending limits on everything from D.J.'s to foodand photocopies.

"The committee became more of a rubber stamp,"he says. "It didn't allow for subjectivejudgment."

Even when guidelines are in place, theirenforcement presents a challenge.

At Penn, "sometimes people are too willing toignore constitutional rules," Schorr says. "Therearen't enough checks to make sure people followtheir budgets."

Steffen says tracing where funds end up is alsoa problem at Washington University.

"When we allocate money, we don't hold them tospending the money on what they put on theirbudgets," he says. According to Steffen, a grouplast year spent $500 on kegs and "personal items"including a $130 planner.

Group Initiative

Student groups at many schools have becomefrustrated with trying to get funds through theirstudent governments and have tried differentmethods of getting a bigger slice of the pie.

Washington University's Student Unionencourages groups to raise their own funds byrewarding groups that raise their own money withadditional funding.

Instead of bypassing the student governmentsystem, two umbrella groups at U. Penn. havedecided to mobilize their forces within it.

The Performing Arts Council (PAC), whichcoordinates all music, theatre and performancegroups at Penn. decided to get involved when thecouncil tried to standardize funding forperforming groups, says former PAC chair ElizabethP. Scanlon.

"That sort of defeated the purpose of havingmany diverse groups," Scanlon says. "It's all upto the whim of nine people who didn't knowanything about performing arts."

In response, Scanlon led a drive to put PACmembers on the executive committee of the StudentActivities Committee. This year PAC holds three ofthe nine committee spots.

"You have to be politically savvy to get money.We work very hard to get people on SAC to protectour interests," she says.

Staffing the System

Most students and officers agree that thepeople that run the funding system are moreimportant than the system itself.

Penn's system "needs people in order to workwell," Schorr says. "They need to give a prettybig time commitment and be committed to the rules,otherwise its organization could be ignored."

At Washington University, "there's always apotential for abuse," Steffen says, "but when goodpeople are in office the system works well."STUDENT GROUP FUNDING

Ivy League student governments provide varyinglevels of grant support.

College  FundingBrown  $686,406Cornell  $480,000U. Penn  $474,900Columbia  $460,000Harvard  $126,500Yale  $44,000Princeton  $26,000

Source/Respective Universitie

Harvard undergraduates currently have theoption to pay a $20 annual fee for studentservices.

Spreading the Funds Around

Since student group wants consistently outweighfunding available to them, distributing money isoften an arduous task, and student governments areoften the target of sharp criticism.

Matthew R. Rothman, president of Yale CollegeStudent Union, a group that brings speakers tocampus, says his group needs at least $900 tobring in one speaker, so Yale's limit of $1,000 ayear is not nearly enough. Despite this, he says,the UOFC did not give the group the full $1,000.

"I think the [funding] process is quitearbitrary," Rothman says. "Their decisions aren'tconsistent for the same items for differentorganizations."

Rothman adds that the process of applicationfor the $1,000 is very rigorous.

Naftalis defends the UOFC's process. "I thinkit works well," he says, adding that the UOFCenjoys a close relationship with the UniversityAdministration.

Yale has a dean of undergraduate organizationswho helps choose UOFC board members, offersadvice, and handles the Committee's paperwork.

"The Dean helps us by giving us aninstitutional memory, a different perspective, andlegitimacy with student groups," Naftalis said."We're still autonomous and they can't overruleus, but we get the advantages of being in theDean's office."

But one disadvantage of being so closelyconnected to the university, Naftalis says, isthat the students do not determine the amount ofmoney the administration doles out.

"It becomes difficult to estimate how muchwe'll get from year to year, and that makes ithard to have long-range plans," he said.

Washington University's distribution of fundsis student-directed but that hasn't spared themfrom criticism.

The university's Student Union (SU) got intohot water a two years ago when their EntertainmentCommittee organized a reduced-fare bus trip to NewOrleans with SU funds and then sold all thetickets to their friends and acquaintances beforeadvertising the trip to the whole student body.

"It appeared they were literally andfiguratively taking us all for a ride," Steffensays. "We eventually made them hire another busfor other students and this year we made themcharge students full price."

Communication is the Key

In an attempt to improve their funding system,Washington University's Student Union increasedthe number of times student groups can apply forfunding from once a year to once a semester.

"Between semesters, plans change and leadershipchanges for individual groups," Steffen says."It's hard to know what's going to happen a yearafter they receive funding so we had some groupsthat spent all their money early in the year."

Yale's UOFC meets 10 times a year to allowgroups to continually ask for more money.

Columbia has tried to institutionalize theprocess, connecting student groups directly to thecommittee that distributes funding.

But Kornfeind, the CCSC's treasures, says eventhough group treasurers and presidents elect the12 members of the Union of Student Organizations(USO), the committee that distributes studentgroup funds, the outcome has not been consistentlysuccessful.

"Some USO members are not diligent aboutkeeping in touch with their assigned groups," hesays, explaining that communication problems haveplagues funding efforts.

Penn avoids that problem by giving theresponsibility of distributing funds to theirStudent Activities Committee (SAC), which consistsof all 150 treasurers of all registered studentgroups who vote on each group budget allocation.

While SAC elects an eight-member executiveboard to guide the allocation process, SAC ChairSteven J. Schorr says the composition of SAC"allows for a lot of people to have input."

Still, Steffen says the biggest problem atWashington University is ignorance about how thesystem works.

Naftalis finds that confusion over Yale'smyriad of funding sources, applications anddeadlines has led him to help redevelop thefunding handbook to explain the system and put allthe application forms in one place.

Columbia is moving towards the computerizationof forms so that groups can learn regulations onthe Internet and apply for funding by e-mail,Kornfeind says.

Regulations

The distribution process at Columbia is "verylong, very democratic and very inefficient,"Kornfeind says. He also admits that the processcan be "pretty arbitrary".

Four members of the USO have quit this semesterover disagreements.

Montenegro, Columbia's student president, saysshe believes the only way out of sticky argumentsis further standardization.

"Case-by-case decisions don't work, because weend up slighting budgets of groups that shouldn'tbe," she says.

But Yale has found strict guidelines entailother complications.

"Three years ago spending guidelines were verystrict," Naftalis says, explaining that there werespending limits on everything from D.J.'s to foodand photocopies.

"The committee became more of a rubber stamp,"he says. "It didn't allow for subjectivejudgment."

Even when guidelines are in place, theirenforcement presents a challenge.

At Penn, "sometimes people are too willing toignore constitutional rules," Schorr says. "Therearen't enough checks to make sure people followtheir budgets."

Steffen says tracing where funds end up is alsoa problem at Washington University.

"When we allocate money, we don't hold them tospending the money on what they put on theirbudgets," he says. According to Steffen, a grouplast year spent $500 on kegs and "personal items"including a $130 planner.

Group Initiative

Student groups at many schools have becomefrustrated with trying to get funds through theirstudent governments and have tried differentmethods of getting a bigger slice of the pie.

Washington University's Student Unionencourages groups to raise their own funds byrewarding groups that raise their own money withadditional funding.

Instead of bypassing the student governmentsystem, two umbrella groups at U. Penn. havedecided to mobilize their forces within it.

The Performing Arts Council (PAC), whichcoordinates all music, theatre and performancegroups at Penn. decided to get involved when thecouncil tried to standardize funding forperforming groups, says former PAC chair ElizabethP. Scanlon.

"That sort of defeated the purpose of havingmany diverse groups," Scanlon says. "It's all upto the whim of nine people who didn't knowanything about performing arts."

In response, Scanlon led a drive to put PACmembers on the executive committee of the StudentActivities Committee. This year PAC holds three ofthe nine committee spots.

"You have to be politically savvy to get money.We work very hard to get people on SAC to protectour interests," she says.

Staffing the System

Most students and officers agree that thepeople that run the funding system are moreimportant than the system itself.

Penn's system "needs people in order to workwell," Schorr says. "They need to give a prettybig time commitment and be committed to the rules,otherwise its organization could be ignored."

At Washington University, "there's always apotential for abuse," Steffen says, "but when goodpeople are in office the system works well."STUDENT GROUP FUNDING

Ivy League student governments provide varyinglevels of grant support.

College  FundingBrown  $686,406Cornell  $480,000U. Penn  $474,900Columbia  $460,000Harvard  $126,500Yale  $44,000Princeton  $26,000

Source/Respective Universitie