The UC's Phantom Menace

In the op-ed piece that ran on Friday, “the UC’s Dangerous Game” (Op-Ed, Sept. 24), a solid and indisputable point was made (namely, that the Undergraduate Council should avoid reckless and shortsighted spending). But then it went on to say that the council was actually doing so and that a financial calamity was imminent. And that is why the column was disingenuous in spirit as well as effect.

The problem is that the column argued against a phantom—such that no one could possibly disagree with it. It’s easy for everyone to agree that a disaster would be bad, but for someone to try to take the high ground against a disaster that does not exist is spurious.

There is no question that we should be engaging in a frank discussion about how the council should be spending its money. This is especially so because of the large new infusion of money into the council’s accounts. But no one benefits from making the discussion on the matter less than straightforward, and that is the major problem with how Friday’s column was presented. If the council is going to mature in its own abilities and in students’ estimations, then members must refrain from purposefully distorting the debate.

The council is in a transitional phase in the wake of the termbill increase, and we have plenty of terrific student groups who have proposed good uses of council funds. How to maximize the impact on student life by wise spending is what should be our focus, along with serious debate on priorities and goals, without meaningless grandstanding.

The council is by and large doing well as it grows. Of course there have been bumps along the way. The check-bouncing fiasco of early this summer was a disappointing failure to communicate between the administration and the council, though I suspect that it is not the first time that these two groups have not dovetailed perfectly. But it was not the result of terrible management or shortsightedness or negligence or deceit; it was a genuine mistake. And, because it happened, there will be safeguards in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Friday’s column would have us believe that House Committees (HoCos) and student groups were in serious danger of not getting funded. That is just plain misleading. The council has constitutional guarantees against that, and enough money to live up to the commitment. Fully 70 percent of all council money must go to student groups via the grant system. And there is a strong precedent for allocating at least 20 thousand dollars to the HoCos every semester. And the recent trend has been to increase the funding going to these groups. Last year, student groups and HoCos got more money than ever, and there is no reason to believe the trend will be reversed.

One of the great things that came out of the campus-wide debate on the termbill increase was legislation that was even stricter in guaranteeing that the money for student groups, which everyone recognizes as being vital to campus life and student experience, could not be interfered with.

In reality student groups and HoCos are likely to get more funding than ever this year, and it will be the council’s best set of investments.

The incident that prompted Fridays’ column was the allocation of funds to bring a concert and a comedian to campus to do two separate shows for students. Some proposed that doing so would eclipse the council’s more important funding duties. They are right in their impulses to protect student groups and strive for fiscal responsibility—but wrong to continue to do so when any legitimate basis for their fears have been erased.

A comedian is something that a lot of students want to bring to campus, and it is fiscally sound too because revenue will be returned to the council from ticket sales. On top of that, with all the money that student groups and HoCos are going to get this semester, every House will be able to afford a big blowout stein club that same night. That way, one council-funded event will go a long way toward enhancing another.

Clay Capp ’06 is a history and literature concentrator in Kirkland House. He is on the Undergraduate Council’s cabinet, serving as Student Group Liaison.