Student Assembly

Whereas, the Student Assembly (the Assembly) has both legislative and judicial authority over the Student Assembly Finance Commission (the Commission);

Whereas, publication expenditures consisted of 14% of total SAFC allocations last semester,

Whereas, many groups are capped on funds they do request, and money that is issued by the SAFC but is not spent is unable to be used by groups during that semester and rolls over to the next,

Whereas, the current Special Projects system does not allow money to be granted to Student Organizations that erred in their original application;

Whereas, the Assembly has seen appeals from a number of groups on the basis that they erred in their application and were unable to receive SAFC funding;

Whereas, many student groups who err in their application are often still deserving of SAFC funds;

Whereas, in order to obtain Administrative funding a group must simply turn in a budget by the submission deadline for SAFC budgets;

Whereas, Section 1.3 of the Assembly Charter titled “Welfare of the Student Community” states:

“The SA will have the authority and the responsibility to examine any matters which involve the interests or concern the welfare of the student community and to make proposals concerning those issues to the appropriate officers or decision-making bodies of the University.”

Be it therefore resolved that the first sentence of the subsection of Section 9.6.4 of the SAFC Funding Guidelines titled “Publication Production” be modified as follows with additions in bold and deletions in strikethough:

Applicant organization must include in its application:

1. number of issues and pages per issue;
2. a copy of a prior issue of the publication or, in the case of a new publication, a written outline detailing the format and intended content of the publication; and,
3. Price Quote documentation for each cost associated with production.

Be it further resolved that the definition of Special Projects in the subsection of Section 3.3 of the SAFC Funding Guidelines titled “Purpose” be amended as follows with additions in bold:

To allow organizations to request funds in certain new or special circumstances accommodate changes in circumstances that require an organization to request additional funds, the commission permits submission of special project requests.

Be it further resolved that the subsection of Section 3.3 of the SAFC Funding Guidelines titled “Eligible Items” be amended as follows with additions in bold and deletions in strikethrough:

An applicant may request additional funding for any expenses in its budget or for entirely new expenses under the following conditions:

• applicant meets criteria for eligibility;
• special project funding application is submitted before a deadline in the calendar such that the commission will render a decision before any additional requested funding must be used;
• additional funds are needed because either of new circumstances which:
  • the applicant has new circumstances which:
    • support a higher allocation than the original circumstances of the application, and

could not have been reasonably anticipated or mitigated by the organization before it submitted its original request; or,

• the applicant:
  • has received no funding in any categories other than Administrative Expenses in its original application, and
  • has not submitted any other special project request in the current funding cycle.

Each special project request must be limited to one category of supported expenses.

Be it finally resolved that the subsection of Section 3.3 of the SAFC Funding Guidelines titled “Procedure for Submission” be amended as follows with additions in bold and deletions in strikethrough:

Organizations submit special project funding applications using a special project application form available online from the commission website. Forms must be signed by the registered president, treasurer, and advisor of the organization and must include:

• identification of the items for which additional funding is needed how much more is needed for each; and,
• if the request arises from new circumstances, appropriate documentation of new circumstances necessitating the increased allocation, including documentation that the applicant could not have foreseen such circumstances at the last regular deadline.

Respectfully submitted,

Charlie Feng ‘11
SAFC Co-Chair

Dan Gusz ‘11
SAFC Co-Chair

Justin Min ‘11
Student Assembly Liaison to the SAFC

Roneal Desai ‘13
Freshman Representative to the Student Assembly

Vincent Andrews ‘11
VP Public Relations to the Student Assembly