Council Prepares For Fund Struggle

The Undergraduate Council has the resources to continue funding dormitory parties for at least a month, despite demands to the contrary from administrators worried that the money supports underage drinking, UC President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 said.

The Council’s defiance of the College’s decision to end the party grant program sets up a confrontation with University Hall administrators still in possession of the bulk of the UC’s funding for the year.

The UC’s Executive Board will meet with Pilbeam this morning, according to Petersen, marking the first face-to-face meeting between the Council and administrators on the issue.

The majority of the UC’s funds come from a $75 fee paid yearly by each undergraduate on an opt-out basis. These funds are held by the University and are transferred to a UC-controlled private bank account in $50,000 increments at the request of the UC treasurer, according to former UC Treasurer Benjamin W. Milder ’08.

It was unclear whether the College could freeze the remainder of the UC’s termbill funding, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, should administrators decide to punish students for violating the order.

The UC’s constitution, ratified by a vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1982, states that “the Council shall receive term-bill income for its own operations, for grants to undergraduate organizations, and to stimulate social life. The Council shall have final control over this income.”

Petersen said yesterday that he believes the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with its 1982 vote, remains “the sole authority that could affect Undergraduate Council funding,” and he has said that Pilbeam overstepped his authority as an official of the College by ending the party grant system.

Pilbeam declined to comment for this story, writing in an e-mailed statement that “when there’s something for us to say, you’ll hear.” Assistant Dean of Harvard College Paul J. McLoughlin II, who oversees the transfer of College funds to the UC, according to Milder, could not be reached for comment.

Petersen said yesterday that the UC has enough funding to continue regular operations for a “substantial period of time”—at least a month to six weeks.

In anticipation of the steps administrators could take to limit the UC’s funding, the UC allocated $2,000 at its Wednesday meeting to hire legal counsel.

Three-quarters of the UC’s roughly $500,000 budget goes to weekly student group allotments, Petersen said. If the College were to halt all funding to the Council, student group support would eventually dry up as well.

Milder said he believed a freeze was unlikely, and in the meantime, Petersen said he was optimistic. “I’m hoping that we can work out this conflict with the faculty and the administration,” he said.

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached cflow@fas.harvard.edu.