[2683] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] Upcoming UA Issue - Student Group Property Ownership
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew Lukmann)
Wed Oct 18 00:27:03 2006
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:28:09 -0400
From: Andrew Lukmann <lukymann@mit.edu>
To: Kelsey Byers <kbyers@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.62L.0610172331270.25617@white-meteo.mit.edu>
Cc: mit-talk@mit.edu
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
Hey Kelsey...
That's a perfectly reasonable question, and I'll try to give you the 30
second summary.
* All Students, Graduate and Undergraduate, pay a $200 Student Life
Fee. The history behind the creation of the Fee and the reason for
separating it from the normal Institute budget process can be
found here (report from year 2002-03 - the numbers may not be
accurate today): http://web.mit.edu/gso/faq/studentlifefee.html
* Somewhere between 50% and 70% (supposedly) goes to DAPER to run
their facilities.
* The balance goes to a number of different sources, but primarily
to funding sources that fall under the discretion of the Student
Activities Office, the Undergraduate Association (Including the
Class Councils) or the Graduate Student Council. (Funding Boards
like LEF and ARCADE receive money at this stage, but these funds
are disbursed by joint ASA/UA/GSC committees in the name of the UA
and the GSC).
* Of the money that goes to the UA directly (of late, roughly
$220,000 per year), the UA traditionally takes a small fraction
(~$15,000/term) for its own operations.
* The UA Senate also maintains a roughly $2500/term emergency
discretionary account to help out student groups or events.
* The balance (~$180,000 per year) is allocated by the UA to student
groups recognized by the ASA as "undergraduate" student groups.
The UA Finance Board recommends allocation of funds to these
groups four times during the year (Fall Allocations/Appeals &
Spring Allocation/Appeals) to the UA Senate who has final approval
of any disbursement of UA funds.
* The Finance Board regularly sets policies on how funds that it
allocates can be used.
* Any funds that were allocated to a student group by the UA for a
particular funding cycle (i.e. term) but not expended roll back to
the UA.
The GSC has its own funding mechanism that is different from the UA's,
you'd have to ask them for more information about how they fund
ASA-recognized "graduate " groups. Keep in mind that many groups have
both graduate and undergraduate members, but in order to receive funding
from either government, a group must be considered (based on the
composition of its membership) either a graduate group or an undergrad
group.
Please e-mail us at ua@mit.edu if you need us to help answer any more
questions.
Hope that helps a bit,
Andrew Lukmann
UAP
Kelsey Byers wrote:
>> Many people engaging in this discussion seem to have a fundamental
>> misunderstanding of the money trail and the basic structure of their
>> student government. If you are confused about something, emailing
>> ua@mit.edu will likely get you a good answer.
>>
>
> Not to sound like the devil's advocate, but I'd like to raise the
> following point:
>
> Most people probably do misunderstand the money trail. This is mostly
> due to the fact that it's not terribly transparent; when people need money
> for student groups they know that Finboard gives it to them, but most
> people don't know the fundamental cycle of funding and student
> group-administration hierarchy.
>
> While encouraging people who are confused to email the UA to ask, I
> suspect that most people here either don't realize that they're confused
> or don't feel like they should have to ask the UA in order to understand
> where their money is going.
>
> In the spirit of educating your student population, I'd strongly suggest
> that the UA take the initiative to inform the undergraduate body of where
> their money goes rather than forcing us to come to you and say "I feel
> like an idiot, where does my money go?" Your responsibility as elected
> officials of the student body is to tell us what's up. If we're still
> confused, then encouraging people to email is a good idea, but a basic
> explanation of the system is owed to anyone who puts money into it.
>
> Plus - fewer emails involved!
>
> Would someone from the UA mind sending the student body an explanation of
> the process? I know I for one would appreciate such a thing. I searched
> and searched the UA and UA Finboard websites for this information, and
> didn't find any of it. No mention of DSL or explanation of the Student
> Activity Fee at all.
>
> If you're going to expect reasonable, non-defensive behavior from your
> constituents, you have a responsibility to communicate how the process
> works. Otherwise the fault is really your own.
>
> Just my somewhat offended $0.02,
>
> - Kelsey
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