After reworking its formula, the Undergraduate Students Association Council approved allocations for student group funding on Thursday.
The Student Organization Operational Fund is an important source of money for student groups for operational costs, and the Budget Review Committee ““ consisting of USAC members and the Budget Review chair and assistant chair ““ oversees the allocations.
Council’s approval had been delayed due to concerns about inequities in the original proposed allocations.
In the first proposal, there was a range of allocations from $8 to $5,503.
The reason these results were skewed, according to council members who worked on the allocation process, was that groups had made very high funding requests, some totaling over half of the entire budget.
This threw off the formula used to determine allocations, making the amount requested a more important factor than the group’s application score.
“It was clear from the statistics that we needed to create a system that took into consideration the scores,” said Parsa Sobhani, Finance Committee chair.
After Tuesday’s meeting, the council reevaluated the formula it had used previously, searching for a way to mathematically balance out the errors.
“We were presented with a system that was inherently flawed,” said Sean Chibnik, Budget Review chair.
With help from Jerry Mann, director of Associated Students UCLA Student Support Services, new allocations were developed, this time with a range of $98 to $1,644.
Councilmembers said they were pleased with the results.
Sobhani said he felt the second set of proposed allocations was fairer and more reasonable than the first.
“The funding solution (from Thursday) is very much more equitable … than the one on Tuesday,” he said.
President Gabe Rose said he believed students would be better able to continue their work with the revised proposal.
“These are allocations that will allow student groups to function,” he said.
Chibnik and Rose said that as more groups apply ““ there were roughly 40 more applications this year than in 2006 ““ and request more money, these changes are a necessary part of adapting and improving.
“You have to change with the times,” said Chibnik.
Some student groups say they know USAC has limited funds, and they will be content as long as they are able to maintain their operations.
“I’m sure even though we do need the money … whatever they give us is usually enough to continue with the work that we do,” said Daniel Pham, president of the Vietnamese Student Union.
Alex Kandel, finance chair for Bruins for Israel, said he appreciated the thorough nature of the funding application process and was glad council chose to reevaluate the original allocations.
“I’m actually glad they verify things that way. Hopefully people get what they deserve,” he said. “It looks like as they reworked the formula it’s more fair.”