The Undergraduate Finance Committee has announced its allocation of the $1,250,000 student activities budget for the fiscal year 2019-20, providing funding to 10 undergraduate student organizations. The budget increased by three percent this year, compared to last year’s 1.13 percent, and all organizations saw increases in their allocations.
The increased budget and allocations are the result of a larger class of ’23s and a higher student activities fee, UFC chair Ebenezer Bulcha ’19 said.
According to a May 20 UFC press release, Class Council received $30,000; Club Sports, $53,500; Collis Governing Board, $99,000; Council on Student Organizations, $294,000; Dartmouth Outing Club, $61,000; Greek Leadership Council, $61,000; Homecoming Bonfire, $57,000; Programming Board, $341,000; Special Programs and Events Committee, $197,500; and Student Assembly, $56,000.
Of the 10 organizations, CGB, COSO, GLC, SA and SPEC received allocation increases of over $10,000, mostly because of student demand, the press release noted.
The UFC consists of nine at-large members, nine representatives from member organizations, one non-voting chair and two non-voting advisors. The committee serves as an advisory organization that “allocates the budget in a responsible fashion,” Bulcha said. It met every Monday during the spring term to review organizations’ past budgets and evaluate their proposals for the coming year.
In their proposals, the organizations detailed how they will use the requested funds. CGB expressed plans to renovate certain Collis facilities; COSO now oversees all service groups; GLC manages all large-scale, Greek-led events, such as the GDX concert, which has been traditionally funded by SPEC; SPEC allocates funds to large-scale events such as heritage months; and SA is planning to continue the bus and food voucher program, according to the press release.
SPEC chair Samantha Koreman ’20 said that recently there has been higher demand for heritage months. Programs under SPEC’s purvey include Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, LGBTQIA+ Heritage Month, Black History Month and Islam is Green. Of SPEC’s budget, 76 percent of funding allocations went toward events that “celebrated different identities or heritage groups,” according to Koreman.
Queer Prom and Luau requested SPEC funding for the first time this past year.
“This is the first year that we’ve seen Luau come to us,” Koreman said. “Due to the increase in the popularity of the event, they decided to come to SPEC to increase the funding and the scale of the event.”
COSO uses its budget to fund over 160 active student groups on campus. The COSO Board attends an annual retreat to review budgets from student groups, according to an email statement from the organization.
Bulcha emphasized the importance of student access to the allocated funds.
“UFC funding comes from the student activities fee, so every student contributes,” Bulcha said. “Therefore, all students should receive some value.”
