Undergraduate Council Finance Committee Deserves Commendation

I am writing to dispute your critical appraisal of the Undergraduate Council's management of organizational funding, as presented in the Friday, November 8 issue (News Feature, "When U.C. Doles Out Money, Scales Are Sometimes Weighted"). As the chair of the Hyperion Theatre Company, now recognized as an official arts organization of Harvard University, I have found the Undergraduate Council Finance Committee, and Finance Chair Stephen Weinberg '99 in particular, to be exceedingly cooperative and generous throughout the grants process. My organization has applied for council grants in each of the past two academic terms, and we have found the council application to be fair, concise and user-friendly.

The subsequent interview process is casual and non-combative; Mr. Weinberg conveys a particular interest in our project and what is needed to make it happen, rather than adopting a hard-line, cost-cutting stance. In the case of last spring, when we discovered that our original council grant award was insufficient to sustain our budget, we made a second case during appeals night and were swiftly awarded additional funding.

From my own experience, the lesson is clear: if organizations work with, rather than against the council during the grants process, the council will reciprocate. Student groups that submit incomplete or incomprehensible grant applications, or that enter an interview unsure of their project's purpose or concept, will most probably find themselves unsatisfied with the council's decision.

From my vantage point, the Finance Committee takes great care to award student grants on a meritocratic basis, and will accordingly hold organizational leaders accountable for justifying how their projects enrich life at the College. I believe that Steve Weinberg and the Finance Committee should be commended for their efforts to responsibly administer a large funding endowment to student organizations that are diverse and multi-faceted in their scope, rather than being criticized for shortcomings inherent in any bureaucratic structure. --Sam Speedie '99   Chair, Chief Executive Officer   The Hyperion Theatre Company