Modified Student Life Fund Returns

The College will reinstate the Student Life Fund after a semester-long absence, but the College administration will now have greater control of the fund’s distribution.

For the spring semester, $50,000 will be available to finance domestic travel for student organizations and to supplement funding for House Committee-sponsored events, according to Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds.

The College administration alone will review travel funding applications from student groups and distribute the supplemental funds to HoCos—two tasks originally entrusted to the UC when the fund was initiated.

“In reviewing the success of [the Student Life Fund], Dean Hammonds determined that the College, which is making the funds available, should also be responsible for awarding those funds,” Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesman Jeff Neal wrote in an e-mailed statement.

At the peak of the University’s budgetary crisis last spring, Hammonds temporarily deactivated the fund pending further review of its use and purpose, according to Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin.

When Hammonds created the fund at the beginning of the 2008-2009 academic year, it amounted to $75,000 drawn from her discretionary funds, and was jointly administered by the UC and the College administration.

According to former UC Treasurer Anthony R. Britt ’10, the UC had allocated $30,000 of last year’s fund to HoCos for House formals, and the remaining $45,000—of which the UC had doled out $19,000 by the time the fund was suspended—was to be distributed for travel opportunities based on criteria established by the UC.

College administrators said they will use criteria similar to last year’s when reviewing applications for domestic travel. Those criteria provided funds for “one-time, novel” travel opportunities, Neal said.

Though UC leaders lauded the return of the Student Life Fund, some said that they have mixed feelings about the administrative changes.

“I think it is unquestionably good that it is back,” UC Vice President Eric N. Hysen ’11 said. “Obviously I would prefer that the UC would control the allocation of the fund.”

But Hysen added that the removal of the UC as a middleman could “eliminate a layer of bureaucracy” and simplify the application process for students.

Despite the College administration’s new control over the fund, Hysen said the UC still hopes to have a role in its disbursement.

—Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Melody Y. Hu can be reached at melodyhu@fas.harvard.edu.