The Undergraduate Finance Committee received an budget of $1,002,000 to allocate to student organizations for the 2010-2011 academic year, up from the $960,000 budget of 2009-2010, according to its June 3 press release.
The UFC’s budget was larger because of a scheduled tuition increase.
This year’s UFC chair, Kathryn Arffa ’11, said that an increase in the student activity fee allowed the committee to allocate substantial funds to each organization despite the overall decrease in the College’s budget this year.
The cost of the student activity fee is tied to the amount students pay for tuition, which the Board of Trustees increased by 4.6 percent in March.
“We were actually one of the few sections of campus to receive an increase in our budget versus a budget cut,” Arffa said.
She added that the increase in student activity funding is part of a strategy to counteract the effect budget cuts might have on individual’s “Dartmouth experience.”
Arffa noted that while the UFC had an increased overall budget, its members tried to employ “fiscal conservativeness” in its decision-making.
“Although we have an increased budget, we need to understand that the College is experiencing budget cuts,” Arffa said. “We wanted to be as diligent in our allocations as we have been in previous years.”
The allocations for Student Assembly and the Greek Leadership Council remained the same as last year, at $75,000 and $45,000 respectively. Arffa said that the UFC judged the budgets under which these organizations operated last year to be appropriate for the coming year.
Student Body President Eric Tanner ’11 said the Assembly requested around $100,000 in its proposal, but he said he was satisfied with the amount it received.
“It tends to be that [the Assembly] always requests more than it receives and then receives generally around the same amount of money [each year],” Tanner said.
The Assembly requested $113,450 in 2009 and received $75,000, The Dartmouth reported previously.
Tanner said that the Assembly’s budget allocation reflects recent changes within the organization.
“I think that it had to do a lot with the programs that we’re trying to eliminate and the kind of direction we’re trying to take [the Assembly] in, which hopefully will be working its way towards having far less funding necessary,” Tanner said.
COSO will receive the largest increase in funding among student groups. COSO’s yearly allotment rose from $252,000 to $271,000 in order to accommodate the growing number of organizations seeking funding from COSO, Arffa said.
Thomas Hadley ’10, who sat on the UFC board as a representative for COSO, said that COSO’s ability to support its constituent organizations adequately had been suffering as the organization’s growth had outpaced its funding increases.
“The influx of active groups is a serious concern to COSO, as budgets elsewhere around the college are continuing to be trimmed and student-run groups keep needing to look elsewhere for financial and organizational support,” Hadley said.
Hadley added that he was “very happy” with COSO’s allocation. COSO received all funds it requested, according to Hadley.
The Collis Governing Board’s allocation increased from $50,000 to $52,000, according to UFC advisor Eric Ramsey. Most of this funding supports programming and coffee in One Wheelock, the coffeehouse that replaced Lone Pine Tavern in November 2009.
The Collis Center received $32,662, up from last year’s $23,300. This funding supports offices, various leadership programs and the employment of a part-time Student Organization Accounting Assistant who helps manage the Student Activity Fund. Ramsey said that the increased funding will allow the Collis Center to employ the accounting assistant over the Summer term, in addition to the Fall, Winter and Spring terms to which his employment had previously been limited.
The Committee of Class Officers was allocated $33,500, which it will disburse among individual class councils in the Fall. Last year COCO received $32,000.
Joe Coleman ’11, president of the 2011 Class Council, said COCO’s allotment matched the amount requested in its proposal.
“Last year we made a pretty strong effort to curtail any extra expenditures, so we just kept the same number and hoped for the best,” Coleman said.
Funding for the Special Programming and Events Committee increased by $1,000 to a total of $135,000. Hannah Katterman ’12 was appointed SPEC chair for Summer 2010.
Funding for Programming Board increased from $320,000 to $323,000. Club sports were allotted $31,000, up from $28,700.
A reserve balance of $3,138 will allow for flexibility with upcoming co-sponsorship changes, according to the UFC press release.
After making the allocations, the UFC also agreed to discuss organizational changes in the Fall that would enable the board to allocate funds more effectively.
Will Hix ’12, who sat on the UFC board as the Assembly’s representative, said that although each member of the UFC attempted to make the most equitable decisions possible, the current structure of the budgetary process was limiting.
“I found that the UFC has loosely defined procedure, which allows for both flexibility and unpredictability,” Hix said.
The UFC’s current board will meet once more in the Fall to discuss organizational changes. Proposed changes include altering the procedure for selecting the UFC chair, a position currently filled by either the student body president or his or her appointee.
“As it is now, the chair as SA appointee creates conflict of interest,” Arffa said.
Hix said he is optimistic about the UFC’s proposed reforms.
“While it was disappointing that our allocation stalled, a more important victory occurred in the passage of some key changes in UFC procedure,” Hix said.
The UFC also agreed to hold biweekly meetings in the Fall and Winter to discuss co-sponsorship agreements and to improve communication among UFC’s sponsored groups.
Hix said that these meetings would help the UFC “eliminate repetition and confusion in event sponsorship, particularly among [Committee on Student Organizations] groups.”