College, UC Deal With Grants

The Undergraduate Council (UC) announced on Sunday that it had come to a short-term agreement with the administration regarding the distribution of party grants, but Interim Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam denied yesterday that any such deal had been reached.

UC President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 reported the compromise at the beginning of Sunday night’s council meeting, and it was expected to be approved by the UC’s Finance Committee (FiCom) in a vote last night, FiCom Chair Randall S. Sarafa ’09 said.

According to Petersen, the terms of the compromise stipulate that recipients will no longer be permitted to use grants to purchase alcohol, but the money may now instead cover the costs of other party-related expenses that were not reimbursed previously.

But in an interview with The Crimson yesterday, Pilbeam claimed he knew nothing of an official compromise.

“There is no agreement,” he said. “No decisions are finalized. There are a whole range of topics that are being discussed.”

“I haven’t heard anything. That’s news to me,” he added upon learning about Petersen’s announcement on Sunday.

Petersen said he could not comment on what Pilbeam said in the interview, but added, “I’m hopeful that my work with Dean Pilbeam will come to a resolution on this issue with both immediate and long-lasting benefits.”

He also said he hoped there would be visible results today, referring to the joint statement that UC members said the council is planning to release with the administration this morning.

According to council members, the agreement will stay in effect only through the end of this semester, at which point the UC and the administration will utilize a new arbitration mechanism that the two parties are developing to resolve conflict between them, the specifics of which have yet to be determined.

Sarafa said that establishing this mechanism is just one of the ways the UC benefits from the compromise.

Among other advantages, he also cited the administration’s pledge to fund ten Beverage Authorization Teams per semester that the UC can allocate to student group events.

“The BAT Teams...will allow FiCom to coordinate with the office of student activities to help student groups who need BAT Teams for their events,” Sarafa wrote in an e-mail.

As a result of the agreement, the UC will also be able to receive funds from the administration every other week, more often than in the past.

FiCom is set to meet tomorrow to discuss what expenses the party funds will and will not cover, in order to make these rules explicit to recipients, Sarafa said.

“The committee will verify all the things that we will advertise as being covered by the party fund,” he wrote.

After Pilbeam announced the termination of the party grant program on Oct. 2, the UC defied the administration’s decision and continued its practice of doling out thousands of dollars every week for students to buy food and alcohol for private parties.

This action prompted the College to freeze the UC’s funds a week later. Weeks of closed-door negotiations between Pilbeam and Petersen resulted in the unfreezing of the funds on Oct. 24. Petersen said the discussions that led to this newest resolution also took place primarily between him and Pilbeam alone, with the agreement finalized over the past week.

“I’ve been working with Dean Pilbeam to form an agreement within the purview of our offices, to be hopefully met with the agreement of all involved parties,” Petersen said.

After the council’s funds were unfrozen and prior to the new agreement, Petersen said the UC would not allocate any of the funds it received from the administration to party grants.

—Staff writer Victoria B. Kabak can be reached at vkabak@fas.harvard.edu.