SAC approves slashed budget

All but 12 of the 142 groups funded by the Student Activities Council will have their money cut next year, according to the budget passed by the SAC general body last night. With about $120,000 less to grant than this year, the body scrambled to slash expenditures and limit costs -- rendering many traditionally heavily-funded groups with no SAC money for 1993-94. And one group -- AIESEC, an international internship program -- was apparently voted out of existence when the body voted not to pay for its national membership fee even after its representative pleaded that he had "put too much time in this organization to see it go down." But cutbacks punctured the finances of all types of organizations. From Mask & Wig to the Panhellenic Council, members were struggling with SAC's new streamlined budget. SAC even dipped into next year's contingency fund a semester early, hoping to provide support for organizations which were passed over in the initial budgeting process. But still left out were the majority of performing arts groups which generate ticket revenue. The SAC Finance Committee -- the group which makes recommendations to the general body -- applied a rule which cut all funding for groups which were "self-supporting." The committee defined "self-supporting" as any group which independently made more money than the amount of last year's SAC grant. "There is no reason that Student Activities dollars should go to a group that can function on its own," Wharton junior and SAC Finance member Dipak Patel said. Across SAC, leaders and activity members said that all students will have to accept the cutbacks, but some suggested that SAC should receive more funding from either the students' General Fee or directly from the University. "We should get more money," SAC Finance Committee Vice Chairperson and Wharton sophomore Dave Browne said last night. "You've got hundreds of millions of dollars flowing through this University, and a little under $500,000 is all we have for student activites. Another $100,000 would take care of a lot of this." College freshman Elizabeth Mitchell, the Stimulus representative, said SAC funding is not growing at a pace equivalent to that of the general body. "I think that if student groups on campus are going to expand, and other groups come in, then SAC will have to expand with it," Mitchell said.