Students seek referendum on UA funding of Greeks

Three weeks after the Undergraduate Assembly voted to allocate funding to the InterFraternity Council, students have protested the decision, asking that the $30,000 instead be used to finance Student Activities Council events. On Thursday, 200 students filed a petition with the Nominations and Elections Committee calling for the creation of a referendum allowing the student body to decide how the money should be allocated. The NEC will likely add the referendum to the ballot of the UA elections -- which will take place on March 31 and April 1 -- according to SAC Chairperson Sang Cha. In order for the referendum to be binding, 15 percent of the student body must vote on it. All referenda in the past three years, which needed a 20 percent participation rate because they proposed changes to the UA constitution, have failed due to lack of voter participation. "If the UA truly reflects the Undergraduate student body, they will let this referendum go through," said Cha, a Wharton junior. If the referendum gains a majority vote, it will require that $30,000 of the $34,000 allocated to the UA discretionary fund be used solely for SAC activities, instead of being used for co-sponsorship of non-alcoholic IFC events. "This is not a vendetta against the IFC," Cha said, explaining that SAC needs money to be able to fund as many events as they did last year. Cha added that he believes almost 100 percent of the student body is involved in SAC groups in one way or another, while only about 30 percent are Greek. Another concern of those who created the referendum is that the events proposed by the IFC would merely duplicate functions already performed by the Social Planning and Events Committee and Connaissance. "It's a bad precedent to set, for the UA to reserve funds for events covered by other student government groups," said Elizabeth Scanlon, former chairperson of the Performing Arts Council. Scanlon, a College senior, added that groups such as SAC and SPEC -- which traditionally fund student activities -- were passed over in the UA decision. Since the IFC is not a branch of student government, money should not have been "earmarked" for their events, she said. And Cha said he believes IFC attempts to hold non-alcoholic events will be futile. "History has shown that 'dry planning' events simply doesn't work," he said, pointing out a SPEC/IFC joint venture in 1996 that "flopped." But UA Chairperson and College junior Noah Bilenker said it may be beneficial to allocate the money to the discretionary fund, which will require the UA to approve individual events, to co-sponsor IFC events. "I want to see what they come up with next year," Bilenker said. "We don't have a community at Penn, and this is an extra chance to foster some community here on campus." And IFC President Josh Belinfante said students should give the future events a chance to work. "Basing what a new [IFC] board can do on what the board [did] two years ago is a false argument," the College junior said. Bilenker added that passing the referendum would be detrimental to all student government groups at Penn. And Belinfante agreed, explaining that it would undermine the UA's budgetary decisions. "Basically, they're saying, 'we don't really care what the UA legally and constitutionally decided to do'," Belinfante said.