[114] in UA Senate
Re: UA budgeting principles
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alex Dehnert)
Thu Oct 15 01:13:30 2009
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:11:00 -0400
From: Alex Dehnert <adehnert@MIT.EDU>
To: Janet Li <jli12@mit.edu>
CC: Alexandra Jordan <amjordan@mit.edu>, hwkns@mit.edu,
Jason Scott <jascott88@gmail.com>, Adam Bockelie <bockelie@mit.edu>,
Paul Youchak <youchakp@mit.edu>, Catherine Olsson <catherio@mit.edu>,
Andrew Lukmann <lukymann@mit.edu>, Alex Schwendner <alexrs@mit.edu>,
ua-senate@mit.edu, ua-discuss@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <f645609e0910142145s5a3b524dx64f2006836a765a9@mail.gmail.com>
If Senate chooses to ask that I do that, I'd ask that you either:
(1) Also ask me to remove food from Senate budget (I'm not sure if you
were counting Senate as a committee)
(2) Come up with a *really good* justification for why Senate deserves
it more.
~~Alex
Janet Li wrote:
> I know I'm new, but I just think that committee meetings are generally short
> enough that no one should go too hungry during them... it does seem a little
> absurd to me that 14% of our budget goes to food to feed OURSELVES. Sure,
> the UA works hard and all, but we do it because we WANT to help the
> undergrads. And I just don't see how we're helping and serving them by using
> 14% of our enormous budget to pay for our own food. I would like to suggest
> that we remove food from all of the committees' budgets in the future...
> does anyone else agree at all?
> ---
> Janet Li
> Baker Senator
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 12:33 AM, Alexandra Jordan <amjordan@mit.edu> wrote:
>
>> I agree with Hawkins. The UA is a large organization, that cumulatively
>> puts in hundreds of hours for the undergrads per week, with some individuals
>> putting in well over even a normal 40 hour work week during the more
>> stressful periods (example: Exec officers and the Budget Task Force position
>> pieces, example: DPC report compilation). Providing basics (like food, a
>> productive meeting space, etc.) for people to perform work on behalf of
>> 4,000 students is completely within reason. If you're looking to cut fat out
>> of the budget, it shouldn't be at the expense of the quality of working
>> conditions for the people who are representing undergraduates to the
>> administration to make life better at MIT. I also would agree with Ashley's
>> assessment that student groups probably should fund certain events or
>> capital expenditures from other means, not only to ensure sustainability and
>> longevity of the group, but also because many small student group expenses
>> benefit even fewer people than the UA food expenditures we're discussing.
>> I also think it's relevant to recognize that the work of the UA is on
>> behalf of all undergrads, whereas many of the groups we fund benefit and
>> represent extremely small segments of the population.
>>
>> Alex Jordan
>>
>>>>> benefit MIT
>>>>> undergraduates. This might mean that we spend the money
>>>>> ourselves or
>>>>> this might mean that we give it to student groups who
>>>>> can use it.
>>>>> There are plenty of student groups who do wonderful and
>>>>> amazing
>>>>> things. All of us can think of student groups which get
>>>>> much of their
>>>>> funding from the UA which have made our time at MIT more
>>>>> worthwhile.
>>>>> Our goal, as the UA, should not be to do awesome things,
>>>>> but rather to
>>>>> see that awesome things get done.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sometimes, of course, this will mean that we should
>>>>> spend money on
>>>>> projects conceived by the UA and sometimes this will
>>>>> mean that we
>>>>> should give money to student groups. However, there is a
>>>>> natural,
>>>>> institutional bias toward spending the money ourselves.
>>>>> We need to
>>>>> fight that bias. Since we, the UA, get first crack at
>>>>> the money, it's
>>>>> easy to think of cool things which we can do with the
>>>>> money while
>>>>> forgetting about the very real and very cool things
>>>>> which student
>>>>> groups will *not* be able to do without that money. We
>>>>> can see this
>>>>> "mission creep" in UA funding in the way that the money
>>>>> allocated to
>>>>> UA committees has increased in past years. Yes, the UA
>>>>> does more with
>>>>> the increased money, but it is not always clear that
>>>>> it's spent better
>>>>> than it could be spent by student groups. The standards
>>>>> which hold for
>>>>> receiving funding from the UA general budget should be
>>>>> analogous to
>>>>> the standards which hold for receiving funding from UA
>>>>> Finboard. I
>>>>> will note that while UA committees received basically
>>>>> everything that
>>>>> they asked for in the Fall UA budget, student groups
>>>>> which applied to
>>>>> UA Finboard received less than 30% of their requests in
>>>>> the most
>>>>> recent funding cycle.
>>>>>
>>>>> Therefore, during the Spring 2010 budgeting process, I
>>>>> intend to push
>>>>> for allocating more money for student groups. Projects
>>>>> which we choose
>>>>> not to fund from the UA general budget can seek funding
>>>>> through UA
>>>>> Finboard, from LEF or ARCADE, from the MIT
>>>>> Administration, or from
>>>>> other funding sources.
>>>>>
>>>>> Please discuss.
>>>>>
>>>>> Alex Schwendner
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 12:52 AM, Alex Dehnert (UA
>>>>> Treasurer)
>>>>> <ua-treasurer@mit.edu <mailto:ua-treasurer@mit.edu>>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> As several people have pointed out, the UA
>>>>> spends quite a bit of money on
>>>>> events (about a third of last semester's budget)
>>>>> and focused projects (like
>>>>> PLUS --- about a tenth of last semester's UA
>>>>> budget). As Andrew Lukmann
>>>>> pointed out last week, committees are spending
>>>>> almost twice as much in Fall
>>>>> 2009's budget as in Spring 2007's budget.
>>>>>
>>>>> Unfortunately, it is now a little bit late to
>>>>> make major changes to the
>>>>> Fall 2009 budget. Last week's meeting was
>>>>> intended to allow that, and we
>>>>> spent a great deal of time on it then. I also
>>>>> solicited feedback late Friday
>>>>> night (or really Saturday morning), and didn't
>>>>> receive any. Of course, you
>>>>> are well within your rights to amend the budget
>>>>> at this point. (Though
>>>>> Athletics Weekend has already happened, so I'd
>>>>> rather you didn't amend
>>>>> that...)
>>>>>
>>>>> However, the Spring 2010 budget has not begun
>>>>> being compiled. In preparing
>>>>> the the Fall 2009 budget, I (and I believe
>>>>> committee chairs and the Special
>>>>> Budgetary Committee) generally followed
>>>>> precedent as to events and amounts.
>>>>>
>>>>> In some sense, there are (at least) two options
>>>>> for guiding principles to
>>>>> take in producing the budget:
>>>>> (1) Many of the UA-run events are more useful
>>>>> than the events and
>>>>> programming (Finboard-funded) student groups
>>>>> would spend the money on
>>>>> (2) Alternatively, that events and programs such
>>>>> as Athletics Weekend or
>>>>> PLUS aren't worth taking the money away from
>>>>> those student groups
>>>>>
>>>>> We've recently been defaulting to the former
>>>>> guiding principle. However, I
>>>>> would encourage the Senate to seriously consider
>>>>> which is preferable and
>>>>> pass appropriate legislation indicating a
>>>>> preference.
>>>>>
>>>>> I would be *thrilled* to have such guidance, and
>>>>> would happily incorporate
>>>>> it into next semester's budget. (I warn you,
>>>>> however, that committee chairs
>>>>> will probably be asked to begin budgeting in
>>>>> about two weeks.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Alex Dehnert
>>>>> UA Treasurer
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Adam Bockelie
>>>> 801.209.7233
>>>> <bockelie@mit.edu>
>>>>
>>>> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>>>> Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
>>>> Class of 2011
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jason Alexander Scott
>>> Class Council President
>>> MIT Class of 2010
>>>
>>>
>> __________________________________
>> Alexandra Jordan
>>
>> MIT 2011
>> Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science
>> Political Science
>>
>> amjordan@mit.edu
>> 916.813.7740
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
