The Undergraduate Student Association Council voted unanimously
Tuesday to allocate $38,407 from the Student Organization
Operational Fund to 108 student groups for their winter quarter
operational budgets.
One hundred sixteen groups submitted applications for funding,
seven fewer than in fall quarter. Seventy-nine of the groups that
received funding in fall quarter re-applied.
Amounts ranged from $20 for the Dance Dance Revolution Club to
$842 for the Asian Pacific Coalition.
The allocated funds are strictly for operational costs,
including officer stipends, supplies and advertising. The funds do
not cover programing costs.
The Asian Pacific Coalition, Bruin Republicans, Muslim Student
Association, Student Transfer Outreach Mentor Program, Samahang
Pilipino and Vietnamese Student Union received the highest
allocations this quarter.
Most student groups received lower allocations for winter
quarter than fall due to lower requests, a lower cap and a smaller
amount of funds available, said Budget Review Director Diem
Tran.
The application process includes submission of a formal proposal
and a 20-minute hearing before the Budget Review Committee for new
applicants, or an evaluation of returning groups’ activities
and work in the previously funded quarter, where the committee
examines the group’s ability to manage funds.
Allocations are determined based upon a student group’s
combined score from the hearing and the proposal.
The Budget Review Committee transforms a group’s approved
request into a proportional allocation of all available funds.
Groups did not receive funding if deadlines were missed or if
they failed to submit an evaluation of the previous quarter’s
activity.
This is the second time quarterly funds have been awarded from
the Operational Fund.
In previous years, operational funds were allocated annually
under a different point system, where groups’ scores did not
directly affect the funds budgeted to them.
However, some councilmembers maintain that the funding process
could still be further improved.
“There are still more beneficial ways to allocate funds.
The system is not perfect, but at least it’s better than it
used to be,” said General Representative Brian Neesby.
When fall-quarter funds were allocated, Neesby voted against
their passage and criticized the request cap, saying it would
unfairly benefit groups that requested larger amounts of money and
gave groups an incentive to inflate the amounts of their
requests.
Requests for winter quarter were capped at $3,371, much lower
than fall quarter’s cap of $4,317.
“Lowering the cap number to an amount that was closer to a
larger number of groups allows distribution of funds to be more
even,” Tran said.
Adjustments are made to the cap each quarter to accommodate
changes in requests and the amount of money available, Tran
said.
“A key element to maintaining fairness and equitable
distribution of funds is to adapt allocation depending on groups
and the funding available,” said USAC President Jenny
Wood.