UA budget proposal passed with no problem

The Undergraduate Assembly passed its $1.62 million budget proposal Sunday night with little protest from the other branches of student government.

The UA is responsible for allocating funds to other student government groups, including the Nominations and Elections Committee, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Social Planning and Events Committee and the Class Boards. The remainder of the money is given to the Student Activities Council.

The changes from last year's budget that were passed included an increase in the UA's budget to cover its annual retreat; an increase in SPEC's budget to cover the rising costs of speakers and bands; an increase in the NEC's budget to pay for a student-government newsletter; increases in SCUE's budget for preceptorials; and an increase in next year's senior-class budget to provide more funding for the performing-arts night and Hey Day cleanup costs.

There was also an amendment for a $1,700 increase in funding for QPenn - the group that runs the annual LGBT pride week - under the budget for SPEC-TRUM, the minority-affairs branch of SPEC.

There was some contention in the meeting regarding the $3,000 given to the SCUE Preceptorials committee. College sophomore Lisa Zhu introduced an amendment to cut the preceptorial funding increase by half to encourage financial accountability.

Ultimately, however, the amendment failed, and the full increase was awarded because the majority of the members felt the group had made enough progress that they deserved an increase.

Overall, this year's budget meeting was relatively short and peaceful, with no student groups challenging the preliminary budget proposal released by the UA last week.

Wharton senior and UA chairman Brett Thalmann said that the groups' approval was a result of improved communication among student-government groups prior to the release of the preliminary budget.

College junior Sunny Patel, who serves as the UA treasurer, said the whole process was much more transparent this year, and that all amendments were able to be discussed by the UA prior to the meeting.

The UA receives its budget from the University as a percentage of the General Fee, which is drawn from student tuition.

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