Student Life Fund May Be Redirected

CORRECTION APPENDED

The Student Life Fund, created by the College administration last year to fund House formals and student organization travel, may see its mission change after its distribution last year is reevaluated by College officials.

On Sunday, UC Treasurer Brad M. Paraszczak ’11 sent an e-mail telling UC representatives to warn HoCos, who plan house formals, that the $1250 a semester allocated to each House by the Student Life Fund, may not be available this year.

The $75,000 fund, which is jointly administered by the College Dean’s office and the UC, was temporarily halted at the end of last year due to financial uncertainty, according to former UC Treasurer Anthony R. Britt ’10.

“The [fund] is not frozen,” said Paul J. McLoughlin, Assistant Dean of the College. “It is budgeted for this year in the College’s budget.”

McLoughlin said that the administration would like to review how the fund was used last year before releasing the funds for this year.

“We actually need to see how the money was used [and] see what difference it made,” he said. Depending on the conclusions of that assessment, the fund “may have a different mission this year.”

According to Britt, the requested financial report was submitted Monday. He estimated that the administration will make a decision on the future of the fund by November.

“In terms of the full year, [HoCos should] be able to get some funding, though it definitely won’t be as much as it was last year,” he said.

Leverett House HoCo co-chair Jordan F. Bock ’10 said she is not worried about the potential reduction in funds.

“As long as we plan well, we’ll be fine,” she said.

The fund also had a goal of funding “unique” travel for student organizations, according to Paraszczak, with $45,000 of the fund allocated towards that purpose.

Britt said the UC gave out travel grants from the fund to about 30 student organizations last year, totaling in approximately $19,000.

The Queer Students Association was one of the groups that benefitted from the travel grants. According to QSA co-chair Marco Chan ’11, the grant covered travel expenses for himself and two other board members to travel to New York for a conference with Ivy League LGBT leaders.

“Even just small expenses like $15 one-way bus tickets, which might seem insignificant to other people, is really important to the financial sustainability of student organizations,” Chan said.

Britt said the remaining $26,000 from last year’s fund will be distributed by the College as it sees fit.

-Crimson Staff Writer Melody Y. Hu can be reached at melodyhu@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

The original version of the Sept. 30 news article "Student Life Fund May Be Redirected" incorrectly referred to Jordan F. Bock ’10 as the Adams House HoCo co-chair. In fact, Bock is the HoCo co-chair of Leverett House.