U. Council to debate changes in charity campaign

The University's charity drive will be the main focus of debate at tomorrow's University Council meeting, with members discussing whether to maintain the current United Way-dominated campaign or to open drives up to other organizations as well. Council members will hear proposals from both sides of the two-year-long debate. One committee is expected to call for a combined campaign, which would allow qualified fundraising organizations to solicit donations alongside the United Way. This would allow more money to reach the groups because contributions would not be subject to United Way's "administrative costs." An opposing committee, however, will call for a continuation of the University's current campaign. Members say the United Way provides money to 2,700 different organizations, including ones targeted by the combined campaign drive. Supporters of this proposal claim that the combined campaign gives a "marketing" advantage to the few groups that send materials to the University. In verbose and often harsh statements printed in this week's Almanac, members of both sides criticized each other for being too restrictive or too specialized. Contributors to the fall campaign will vote for one of the two proposals through a March referendum. Faculty Senate Chairperson Almarin Phillips, who is also chairperson of Council's steering committee, said he expects there to be "some sharp differences of opinion" at today's meetings. Last year, the Senate passed a resolution in favor of the Combined Campaign, but Phillips said he does not know how this year's faculty would vote on the issue. Phillips said that there is a third faction on campus that would like the University not to get involved in either proposed program, but they will not be present at today's debate. The other item on the agenda is a proposed amendment to the Council bylaw that deals with international programs. The change is basically a procedural one that will have little, if any, effect on the content of the article. The normally two-hour long meeting -- the first of the semester -- has been shortened to 90 minutes because of the small agenda.

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