Undergraduate Council Plans Student Life Survey

In its first general meeting of the semester, the Undergraduate Council launched a new initiative focusing on social life and passed a series of funding allocation measures for the coming semester.

The council voted to create a five- person Social Life Task Force that will administer an online survey this month, analyze the results, and create recommendations to address the problems that the survey highlights.

UC Vice President Eric N. Hysen ’11 said that having data on how and where students spend their time and what they see as the biggest problems with Harvard social life will give the UC a more “systematic” way of approaching the issues highlighted.

“Social life is the most important thing we’re going to do this semester, and it’s the most important thing we could do this semester,” Hysen said.

According to UC President Johnny F. Bowman ’11, the new Task Force has already been given the responsibility for planning future UC-sponsored tailgates and will have the freedom to propose other events that come from the survey results.

During last night’s meeting, the council also passed a series of fund appropriation measures for the coming semester, including passing its own budget and allocating $5,300 to each House Council.

While this budget is slightly lower than last year’s, according to UC Treasurer Brad M. Paraszczak ’11 the increased allocation that each House will get from the Student Life Fund will raise each House Council budget overall.

In addition, the UC set aside $20,000 from the general UC Grants Fund—to which student groups apply for funding for term-time events and supply costs—to be used for student-led activities during Optional Winter Activities Week, the final week before spring term begins.

These grants, unlike term-time UC funding, will be open to propos

als from individual student and unrecognized student groups.

“We do want to treat the week as different from normal weeks,” Hysen said. “We’re the only group that’s specifically setting aside funding [for students].”

The council also voted to pass larger grants to two student groups—$5,000 each semester to the Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisors and $20,000 for the year to the Phillips Brooks House Association, one of the largest student organizations on campus.

According to Dunster UC representative Pratyusha Yalamanchi ’13, who worked on the PBHA legislation in the UC Finance Committee, last year all PBHA organizations had to apply individually to the UC for funding. The new legislation passed last night will give the PBHA executive board the power to decide how funding is split between its programs.

“This marks a major difference in the way we give out money, and it allows big umbrella groups to oversee the ways they deal with money,” Bowman said.

—Staff Writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu.