[896] in libertarians
New Finance Board Proposal.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert P. Wagner)
Wed Apr 19 13:21:59 1995
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU, libertarians-announce@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 13:19:29 EDT
From: "Robert P. Wagner" <datalore@MIT.EDU>
Hi,
I figured the MIT Libertarians might want to know about this
proposal, since it deals with funding student groups, like the MIT
Libertarians, and it also deals with stopping abuses by "government."
Thanks.
Rob Wagner.
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Date: Mon, 17 Apr 95 14:10:45 EDT
From: dwyatt@MIT.EDU (Doug Wyatt)
To: tmiguel@MIT.EDU, spitroda@MIT.EDU, zuba@MIT.EDU, rvdalal@MIT.EDU,
udayjhun@MIT.EDU, manish@MIT.EDU, tpena@MIT.EDU, datalore@MIT.EDU,
abhijit@MIT.EDU, thstaff@MIT.EDU, hag@MIT.EDU, mitai@MIT.EDU
Subject: Student Activities Funding (with correct contact info...)
Hi all,
I am writing to you all in request that you support a goal that I am
working towards. It involves creating a more coherent and more fair
system of student activity funding. I believe that it is achievable but
I need to enlist your support. The main thing that I need you to do is
talk (in person, on email or over the phone) to your student government
representative (UA or GSC) in support of this idea. I know this looks
like a long email about something you may not be terribly concerned
about, but it IS an important issue. Very important to student groups.
And it won't happen without popular support.
The idea is rather simple: to create an independent body called the
Student Activity Finance Board. This board will be comprised of a
number of people, some of whom are officers of the UA, GSC or the ASA,
and some of whom are elected from the student body at large. It will be
approximately 1/2 undergraduate and 1/2 graduate student (which is
approximately the breakdown of students at MIT). It will be responsible
for receiving budget requests from student groups and allocating the
available monetary resources to those student groups.
There are several possible ways of implementing this idea. These will
be ironed out in discussions between the ASA (Association of Student
Activities), the UA and the GSC. But the important thing is the
concept, as I have outlined above.
Some of you may be wondering why I am concerned about this. (many of
you are not, I am sure, as many are involved in student activities) The
reasons are this. Currently, there are a few different places that
student groups can go to in order to receive money. The GSC allocated
about $15k a year to graduate student groups, (apparently, I just found
out about this one) the CAC allocates some money to groups as well. But
the vast majority of student activity funding comes through the UA.
Dean Smith's office gives the UA about $80k to $90k a year for student
group funding. Due to the amount and the practice, this money is the
primary source of funding for just about all student groups here at MIT.
This situation means that some student groups are at a loss because they
do not realize the opportunities for funding. It also means that the
student group funding is never examined as a whole because the groups do
not talk about their funding decisions. It *also* means that the UA
controls the vast majority of student activity funding.
This last point is probably my greatest concern. In addition to the
abstact arguments for this solution, there are a great many issues
concerning the way the UA handles money which make this a superior
alternative. First, some facts:
*Over the last several years, the UA has consistently allocated itself
about $20,000 each year. This represents almost 1/4 of all of the money
they get for student group funding. Since there is no oversight of
their budget, they don't need to convince anyone but themself that it is
a just budget. This fact, combined with the fact that most
undergraduates see very little useful output from the UA, leads me (and
many) to believe that the UA is wasting a huge resource that could fund
10 large student groups, or about 100 average sized groups.
*During the Godfrey/Tsao administration (the 93-94 school year) the UA
had allocated itself about $23,000 for that school year. Because the UA
Treasurer controled the account that contained all of the student groups
funding as well as the UA Funding, the UA ended up spending (according
to the Current UA President and UA Treasurer) about $30,000. This was
done without getting the increases approved by the UA Council.
*When student activities fail to spend all of the allocated money for a
term, instead of going back into the pot for student funding the next
term, it goes back into the UA Capital Account. The account is meant as
a "surplus" account and the UA uses it to pay for "real goods" which are
physical and last a while. This account has been used for purchases of
"big-ticket items" like xerox machines and DEC Stations for the UA.
*During the spring of 93, when the UA Finance Board was making its
recommendations for the 93-94 fiscal year, they cut an ~$1800 retreat
from the UA budget. Over that summer, the UA Executive committee met,
approved their original budget (with the retreat) and cut part of the
Finance Board's budget. This was obvious to many as a "punishment" for
trying to cut the UA budget.
*Various other instances of poor judgement, abuses and bad planning in
the past include long-distance phone bills of over $1000 for a term
(most of which were personal calls), "UA Retreats" to a hotel where just
a few people showed up and cost a ridiculous amount of money (if I
remember correctly, it was in the thousands of dollars for about 5
people).
Currently, the ASA is working to realize a solution to this problem.
The goal is *not* for the ASA to have control over the new Finance
Board. The end mechanism would (after a trial period) leave the ASA
Executive Board with veto power over the budgets but the essence of the
system would be an independent board (which cannot fund itself).
I have sketched out a draft of a working constitution of such a body and
am in the process of ironing out the issues with the GSC, UA and the
ASA. If you would like to look at this document, or if you have any
suggestions for this process, please email them to me, dwyatt@mit.edu.
And I urge you to please send letters of support of this idea to your
UA/GSC Reps and to the UA/GSC leaders. The GSC, from our discussions,
seems very open and agreeable to this idea. The UA, on the other hand,
seems rather opposed to this idea.
Thanks so much for your support. I think we can make a difference in
the way student groups work here.
Peace,
Doug Wyatt
ASA President
UA Finance Board Secretary
Relevant contacts:
UA-Comments@mit.edu
Carrie Muh (cmuh@mit.edu) incoming UAP
Roger Kermode (woja@MEDIA-LAB.MEDIA.MIT.EDU) outgoing GSC Pres
You can find out who you UA Representative is by asking your
dorm/ilg president or sending mail to UA-comments@mit.edu
(Please forward this to relavent groups which you are members of)
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