Council Divies $40K, But Faces Financial Peril

The Undergraduate Council approved its budget for the 1999-2000 academic year last night, acknowledging that it needs money--and fast.

Treasurer Sterling P. Darling '01warned that council revenues will likely decrease next year, possibly breaking an already strained council budget.

"We can hold things together with shoestring and gum for one more year," said Darling, "but this is the last year that it can be done."

Todd E. Plants '01 objected to the budget several times on the grounds that council President Noah Z. Seton '00 and Darling wrote it without consulting other council representatives, and did not give council members enough time to speak with their constituents before the vote.

After Plants motioned for delays ranging from three minutes to a week, the council approved the budget 55 to 14, with one abstention.

This year's budget allocates nearly $120,000, or 67.5 percent, of the council's assets to grants for student groups in need of money, the largest amount in council history. Last year, 63.75 percent of the funds went towards student group grants.

But because of the recent inflationary growth in the number of groups on campus (students started over 20 new groups last year, and Darling said he expects that as many as 170 groups will apply for grants this year), the average grant size is expected to decrease again this year.

"The growth in student groups has not been matched by a growth in student funds," Darling said.

Worse, the council is in financial straits of its own, and may be ill equipped to fund an extensive network of student groups next year.

Because of accounting slip-ups in past years, the council could rely on significant windfalls from grants that were awarded in past years but never claimed.

However, with new accounting practices, such windfalls (which totaled $17,674 this year) will be rare, Darling said.

In addition, the council allocated only $31,000 to its "committee fund" this year, even though its costs include "Springfest," which last year set the council back to the tune of $43,000

That's because the committee fund is banking on a $25,000 cash infusion in February when funds committed to the construction of a new student center will be freed up if the College does not sign on to the plan.

As such, the members of the council are in the peculiar position of counting on the college to refuse their gargantuan lobbying efforts for a student center, in order to balance the budget.

The $25,000 committed to the student center was part of the infamous $40,000 that the council discovered in its coffers last year.

Initially earmarked for the largest single grant in council history in an effort to convince the administration of student's desire for a new student center, the funds will now be rolled up into this year's committee expenses.

Even worse for the council's financial wellbeing, term bill revenues (the council's main source of income) continue to decline, and took a dive for the second year in a row.

Students are automatically assessed a $20 "fee" on their term bills in order to fund the activities of the council. However, the fee is optional, and students can elect not to pay it.

Seton said that the Council received term bill revenue from 37 fewer students this year.

Last year's term bill revenue dropped by 102 students.

Seton said the council is calling on the administration to share some of the wealth from its recent capital campaign, and match whatever revenue the council collected in term bill revenue.

"When you think of the success of the University's capital campaign," Seton said, "[the council's operating expenses] would be recouped in an afternoon of interest."