The junior class council will ask the College to take money away from what it calls a fiscally wasteful Student Assembly and give it to the class councils.
But Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia said the class councils should worry about their own budget -- not the Assembly's.
"We'd rather have each group make a strong case for themselves," Sateia. "Not this group gets this much, and they should get this much --it's counter-productive."
The undergraduate finance committee, a group of 10 students and Sateia, decides how to divide the money generated by the $35 per-term student activities fee.
Sateia said the finance committee will meet in about two weeks.
Class of 1995 President Tim Rodenberger sent out a letter to administrators on Friday to drum up support for his request to grant more money to the class councils.
"I think it would give us a purpose and presence on campus," Rodenberger said.
The extra money would give the councils a chance to take a more active role in planning social events for their classes, Rodenberger said.
"No one wants to restrict our activities to study breaks, class dinners and band nights," Rodenberger wrote, "but with such a small budget, either we cannot afford better quality activities or we are reluctant to risk our limited funds on new, untested ideas."
Although the finance committee has the final decision on distribution of money, Rodenberger said it would help if they had the support of faculty members.
He sent the letter to Vice President and Treasurer Lyn Hutton, Director of Student Activities Tim Moore, Dean of Students Lee Pelton, Sateia and the class deans.
In his letter, Rodenberger suggested taking $18,000 from the $44,000 Assembly budget because he said the Assembly has too much money.
"Students certainly are not receiving much bang for their buck as is evidenced by the lack of Student Assembly-sponsored events and social alternatives," he wrote.
In the letter, Rodenberger wrote the Assembly has squandered money in the past few years, with "poor financial planning ... in the execution of otherwise good ideas."
For example, in his letter Rodenberger said publishing the course guide on expensive high-density disks was a waste of money, when other methods of distribution were just as easy.
Assembly Vice President Steve Costalas '94 said the Assembly this year will try to make more funding available to other groups.
"We spend the vast majority of our budget on students and student concerns," Costalas said. "To take money from the Assembly is just taking money from one group that spends it on students and giving it to another."
Sateia said if the councils want more money, there are other options available to them.
They could make proposals to the Programming Board or hold fundraisers to get more money, she said.
The class councils currently receive $20 from each entering freshman, which is evenly distributed over four years, meaning each class gets about $5,000 per year.
That money is supplemented with another $3,000 the undergraduate finance committee currently gives to the four classes to divide.
Costalas said a better solution would be to increase the total amount of money to students. That would "increase the pie rather than dividing it," he said.
Sateia said last year the finance committee got $90,000 more in requests than it had available. "We can't meet everyone's requests, and we ask what's fair for the students," she said.
