Correction appended
The undergraduate student government extended its deadline for
funding applications in an effort to grant independent groups
adequate time to be notified and complete their requests for
finances.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council voted to push the
deadline until July 22 during a meeting last week.
The original deadline was set for July 8, but, when the new
guidelines were announced during a June 29 meeting, the council
felt the need to take action to accommodate the groups
effected.
The new guidelines put an end to a debate that has been ongoing
for many years and state all registered groups could apply for base
budget funding as long as they sign a non-discriminatory agreement
with the Center for Student Programming.
Some express concern that, as many students travel over the
summer or are out of the area, groups may have trouble finding
signatories to go to the center to sign the agreement.
An example is Kristina Doan, Bruin Democrats president, who is
in Washington, D.C., for an internship. She said many other key
members of her group also are unavailable to sign the agreement
physically.
Doan hopes to be able to work with the council and CSP over the
next week and solve this problem by working over fax or via
e-mail.
The council initially had stated extending the deadline would
cause inconveniences regarding budget planning and therefore was an
unlikely occurrence.
But USAC President Allende Palma/Saracho said what is important
is that the budget will still be out in August, adding the main
concern had been the possibility of the budget’s being pushed
until October.
“This is a small sacrifice that councilmembers can make.
“¦ Two weeks wouldn’t be too rough,” he said.
The final budget is planned to be approved by the council by
Aug. 10.
Though the Bruin Democrats already are done with the
application, Doan believes the additional time is necessary because
the application is very specific and its completion can be hard for
leaders who are not familiar with the process.
“We were lucky that we found out. “¦ Other groups
were shortchanged by the system,” Doan said about her
group’s being notified of the changes informally through a
councilmember.
“The center for student programming didn’t notify us
until much later,” she added.
The center informed all groups of the changes in the funding
deadline and the new guidelines through e-mails sent on July 7.
Aside from the extension, the council also discussed possible
ways to provide independent groups with funding in the cases where
groups do not apply for the base budget.
One of the ideas with which the council was presented in order
to provide relief for those groups was to set aside more funds in
the contingency pool.
With the exception of one member, the council was against
increasing contingency ““ a supplementary fund allocated on
weekly basis to those who apply for it.
“Base budget is already limited. “¦ It would be
counterproductive to pull more money out of (the base budget
fund),” said Palma/Saracho about the idea of taking money out
of the base budget pool and adding it to the amount of contingency
available.
He added contingency is meant to be a last resort.
Budget Review Director Tracy Ohara agreed about the purpose of
contingency and said the fund does not make up for low base
funding, as base budget covers day-to-day expenses but contingency
can not be used for that.
Even without the increase in contingency, the amount of money
available will be less, as there will be more groups using the
fund. And this decrease will be felt by those groups that
previously have received funding.
Justin Lowe, chief financial officer of the Jewish Student
Union, said his group already has made projections for the upcoming
year but will re-evaluate them once the final budget is passed.
He added that, though the money available will not be as
abundant as last year, the change is an overall positive one
because it opens up funding to groups that could be
“legitimate.”
Lowe said, in order to compensate for the amount that will be
lost, all groups will need to get creative by both fundraising and
utilizing other funding sources available to them.
Correction: August 2, 2004, Monday
In “USAC deadline extended for student groups to seek
funding” (News, July 12), Jason Lowe was identified with an
incorrect first name and the article should have mentioned that
Lowe works for Ha’Am, the campus Jewish student
newsmagazine.