[121] in UA Senate
Re: UA budgeting principles
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Paul Youchak)
Thu Oct 15 02:02:33 2009
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:01:58 -0400
From: Paul Youchak <youchakp@MIT.EDU>
To: Alexandra Jordan <amjordan@mit.edu>
CC: Janet Li <jli12@mit.edu>, Alex Dehnert <adehnert@mit.edu>, hwkns@mit.edu,
Jason Scott <jascott88@gmail.com>, Adam Bockelie <bockelie@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: <09FF2EA8-2FC7-4D2C-BE0E-47C495637959@mit.edu>
I believe we are having a foolish discussion in comparing what the class
councils do and what the UA does....
Seriously, it is stupid.
Alexandra Jordan wrote:
> I would say that meetings for Senate and committees are equally
> advertised online (committees have public google calendars announcing
> all meeting dates on each web page), with the only difference in
> advertising coming from emails from Senators to constituents, which
> varies on a case-by-case basis. It would be impractical for every
> committee to email the undergrads list before each meeting.
>
> I also think it's important to note that Senators represent far fewer
> people than executive committee members, who essentially represent the
> entire student body.
>
> Additionally, I'd argue that committees tend to deliver tangible
> results to the student body (look at any of the active committees like
> DPC, Athletics, Special Projects, etc., who have all completed large
> projects recently that benefit the entire undergraduate population)
> that more than encompass the value of food and office resources
> utilized by said committees.
>
> I agree that standardizing funds for food per person is reasonable.
>
> Alex Jordan
> Panhel Senator
> Chair, Committee on Sustainability
> Member, Committee on Dining
>
>
> On Oct 15, 2009, at 1:21 AM, Janet Li wrote:
>
>> Senate meetings are more broadcast to undergrads than committee
>> meetings are, at least in my experience. As an example, last year,
>> when I wasn't on the UA, the food did actually provide me with an
>> incentive to come to some of the Senate meetings and listen to the
>> guest speakers, etc.
>>
>> Anyway, to complement Paul's numbers, there are indeed serious
>> discrepancies in how much committees budget for food, from $400 total
>> for 5-person meetings (Dining), to $135 total for 5-person meetings
>> (Space Planning). At least we could standardize how much money we
>> spend on food across all committees.
>> ---
>> Janet Li
>> MIT Class of 2012
>> Dept. of Biological Engineering
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 1:11 AM, Alex Dehnert <adehnert@mit.edu
>> <mailto:adehnert@mit.edu>> wrote:
>>
>> 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 <mailto: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>
>> <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <mailto:amjordan@mit.edu>
>> 916.813.7740
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> __________________________________
> Alexandra Jordan
>
> MIT 2011
> Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science
> Political Science
>
> amjordan@mit.edu <mailto:amjordan@mit.edu>
> 916.813.7740
>
>
>
>
