UC Pushes Annual Student Shows To Look Elsewhere for Funding

The Undergraduate Council’s Finance Committee recently chose to cap funding for annual student performances at $1,000 this semester in an attempt to push student groups hosting the events to search for funding sources outside the UC.

At a UC general meeting in March, the UC passed a grants package that allotted $1o,500 out of the requested $34,900.32 to 10 student groups seeking to fund “large venue” events. Seventeen groups had applied for funding.caps

Students organizing the Eleganza fashion show requested $5,ooo in funding, but only received $1,000. Similarly, Ghungroo and the Identities Fashion Show, two annual events, only received $1,000 from the Council—a fraction of what organizers requested.

According to Finance Committee Chair Riya N. Patel ’17, large venue grants are supposed to help newer and “more collaborative” events find funding. Eleganza, Identities, and Ghungroo happen annually and have for several years.

“The Finance Committee spent a lot of time discussing the events, and while they reach a wide audience and are loved by the community, they've become a tradition here on campus and the UC large venue grant can't become a source for expected annual funding,” Patel said. “There are so many new events that people present every year, and large venue [funding] is really meant to support those initiatives.”

According to Patel, the large venue grants package passed last month was meant to be a “transition period” for the older events, as the Finance Committee did not “want to pull the plug completely without any warning.” In years following, the Council plans to push older events toward alternative, non-UC sources of funding, according to UC President Ava Nasrollahzadeh ’16.

The amount at which each large venue grant will be capped in the future will vary based  on the number of events that request funding, according to Patel. Student performances will be capped at $1,000 per show.

—Staff writer Jalin P. Cunningham can be reached at jalincunningham@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @JalinCunningham.