The UC's Dangerous Game

By Teo P. Nicolais

It’s the beginning of the semester. You’ve got a lot of cash sitting in your checking account from this summer’s job. You earned enough for pizza here and there, a couple of movies and even a few dates with the girl in the quad with a killer smile—if you’re lucky.

But the weekend is coming and your friends are calling. Sure you hadn’t intended on spending the money to sponsor a blowout party in your suite—and doing so might mean eating Ramen for the next three months—but it’s here now and so are your friends. You spend it. It’s good to have extra cash.

This year the Undergraduate Council, the body charged with funding student groups, organizing events on campus and engaging in student advocacy, is in a similar situation. The difference is that it has $330,000 in its account and it’s all your money. Tempting as it is, a relaxed budget constraint doesn’t necessarily have to result in relaxed judgment. One of the greatest challenges for this year’s council will be ensuring this does not happen.

The council has improved its accountability and planning in recent times, but it is far from perfect. Last semester, the council had to pass an emergency bill to borrow money from the council’s Grants Fund (money set aside for student groups) to pay for some of its Spring Fest projects.

During that same semester, the council had to use $20,000 from its Grants Fund to pay for a concert after realizing that it had already spent all the money it set aside for council-run initiatives. This is more money not available for the intended student groups.

Over the summer, the council bounced over 90 checks as a result of a communication breakdown between the council and the college administration. There is little doubt the council would have acted differently had it known the consequences of its actions but Harvard’s student groups paid the price nonetheless.

Now, the stakes are higher than ever and the council is still playing with fire. In a recent vote, the council failed to guarantee funding for House Committees—arguably some of the most effective groups at improving campus life—and instead opted to allocate 90 percent of its Fall non-student group budget on two major events and simply hope something could be worked out for the HoCos later.

Fortunately, the new year offers an opportunity to move in a new direction for the council—not just in terms of offering new initiatives and more support to student groups—but in terms of its commitment to keeping its own house in order. With so much potential for positive impact on campus, the council needs to maintain its focus amid the flurry of activity.

The council must be willing to dedicate the necessary human resources to handle the hundreds of student group requests for funding that come in every month. Last year, the powerful combination of the council’s financial resources and the student body’s incredible human resources resulted in memorable projects such as BlackCAST’s Eleganza, Fuerza Latino’s La Vida, Harvard Dems’ Conversations with Candidates and H-Club’s Tailgates.

But, in order to avoid running out of money for student groups halfway through the year, the council must approach its own initiatives such as concerts, comedians and hypnotists with the same stringent accountability it expects from student groups. With the increased budget, the temptation to approve unnecessary or fiscally irresponsible initiatives simply “because it can” will weigh heavily on the council.

Most importantly, the council must not spend what it does not have. This sounds simple in principle, yet it is frequently violated in practice. Many of the council’s projects have the potential to break even but require a significant initial investment. The council becomes tempted to simply assume that it will recoup those costs by charging students for the services and in the mean time pretend the money hasn’t been spent. But this can be a very dangerous game—especially since it often involves covering losses with money pledged to student groups.

That said, there are plenty worthwhile projects for the council to pursue this year. If it takes the time to think through its proposals, select carefully and follow through with its plan, the council can accomplish more than ever before.

With the stakes getting higher and higher, the council must ensure that it not only puts on a great show, but that it also avoids sacrificing funds for student initiatives in the process.

Teo P. Nicolais ’06 is an economics concentrator in Lowell House. He is chair of the Undergraduate Council’s Finance Committee which is responsible for awarding UC Grants to student groups.