UA proposes budget for student government groups | Interactive feature

This Sunday, the Undergraduate Assembly will vote on budget requests from the six student government branches and organizers of New Student Orientation. On Feb. 15, the UA's Budget Committee released a list of preliminary suggestions.

Undergraduate Assembly Treasurer and Wharton Senior Ben Coulter emphasized that the UA has not yet endorsed any of the proposals.

For academic year 2009 to 2010, the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education has requested a 23.4 percent increase to its annual budget.

SCUE chairwoman and College junior Alex Berger explained that the significant increase was due to SCUE's upcoming White Paper, a document outlining committee achievements over the past five years.

"We want to make sure there will be lots of copies of the document so everyone will have a chance to read it," she said, noting that it will be made available for everyone from administrators to the freshman class.

She added that the cost also reflects the paper's readability. "We want it to be more friendly to readers, with color graphics and other features that may cost more as far as publishing is concerned."

Berger emphasized that the major increase, which stemmed mostly from this document, will only occur every five years.'

Coulter also noted that if SCUE had not been given the additional money for the White Paper, the budget for the committee would have only increased by 1 percent.

"That $6,000 is really driving that increase," he said.

This year's request also includes funding for the wine preceptorial, a point of contention during last year's budget meeting. Berger clarified that this year's decision to request funding was made "only after the preceptorials agreed to cut costs in their program."

Otherwise, she reported, "everything remains the same."

Social Planning and Events Committee chairwoman and College senior Michelle Jacobson explained that many of the increases in budget requests stemmed from the desire to fill student demands. "We always want to do better, and doing better usually requires more funding," she explained.

SPEC's Spring Fling concert is one of those examples. "It comes with the territory," she said.

Jacobson cited annually increasing facility, security, artist fees, food and vendor costs as part of the challenge. But, she clarified, SPEC mostly requests a larger budget to draw in big-name music artists and meet student demand.

She also noted that "having a concert in Franklin Field for 9,000 [people] is quite a bit more than you would need in Wynn Commons for 2,000 to 3,000."

SPEC Connaisance is another example of where an increased budget can cater to student demand.

"The past few speakers have sold out," Jacobson described. "It's another case of trying to get big-name speakers and big-name movers and shakers in their industries to Penn."

Even though the UA Budget Committee did not suggest meeting SPEC's request of $150,000 for the Spring Fling concert, they still proposed to increase the Fling concert budget by about 20 percent.

"Fling for many students is a capstone event," he said.

However, the committee did recommend a decrease in SPEC's Jazz and Grooves funding.

"We thought dollars would be better spent to match student interests with big headliners events," he said.

Coulter emphasized that the committee matched the money SPEC requested for the 2009 to 2010 contingency fund - which the group's executive board can choose to allocate.

"SPEC has much more expertise than we do in gauging student demand," he added. "They should be able to decide where those dollars should go."

Coulter also mentioned that the UA will begin funding PennGreen and PennArts, two pre-orientation programs the UA has never funded from their operating budget before. That's an additional $6,250 the UA is responsible for.

"We really just wanted to put dollars where they would best suit student demand," he said.

The Student Activities Committee will also receive a larger budget than in the past. SAC will later allocate this money to specific campus organizations.

"The little guy is taken care of, as well," he said.

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