UC Passes Yearly Budget and Funds ‘Pregame’

The Undergraduate Council passed a finalized version of its budget for the 2016 fiscal year at its general meeting on Sunday.

At its last general meeting on Sept. 20, the Council considered a preliminary version of the budget with the intent of making revisions in the following weeks. The finalized budget, which passed unanimously, remained largely similar to the preliminary one except for increases to the Council’s grants fund and the Student Initiatives Committee and Student Relations Committee budgets.

The Student Initiatives Committee budget increased to $15,000 to fully fund the number of events proposed by the committee, which is responsible for organizing and funding student initiatives, including parties, for undergraduates. To give the Student Relations Committee funding to host various House-wide study breaks for upperclassmen this year, the Council added an extra $3,600 to its budget, bringing the total to $5,100.

The finalized budget also reserves $5,000 for a “crazy idea fund,” to be allocated to an event or program proposed by a Council representative that falls outside the purview of one of the Council’s committees. Even with this fund, UC Treasurer Meghamsh Kanuparthy ’16 encouraged representatives to exhaust other avenues of funding before using the money.

According to Kanuparthy, the initial UC budget and the final one passed on Sunday differed because he estimated lower levels of termbill funding that the Council would receive this year in preparing the preliminary budget. The UC receives the vast majority of their revenues from a $75 fee charged to every undergraduate on their termbill, but students have the option to opt out of it.

Elm Yard representative Victor C. Agbafe ’19 suggested that the Council move $5,000 from the rest of the budget to the $15,000 already allocated for freshman programming. The Council did not take up the proposal, with Kanuparthy saying the increase in funding would not be feasible.

The Council also unanimously voted to earmark $700 to the Cambridge Queen’s Head pub to provide food and non-alcoholic beverages at a “pregame” for an event, dubbed the “Blank“ Party, planned for Oct. 9. Student Initiatives Committee chair Daniel V. Banks ’17 said he hopes the funding will “provide a safe place” for an inclusive pregame prior to the College-wide party, which is sponsored by several women’s groups on campus.

At the general meeting, UC Vice President Dhruv P. Goyal ’16 updated the Council on Omni, a reboot of the “Harvard” smartphone application targeted at undergraduates. Goyal said downloads of the app have surpassed 4,000.

—Staff writer Jalin P. Cunningham can be reached at jalin.cunningham@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @JalinCunningham.