Student Assembly

President Skorton,

I would like to formally communicate Student Assembly Resolution 48, “Addressing the Student Activity Fee Endowment Fund”, sponsored by S.A. Vice President of Finance Roneal Desai and myself. The resolution passed at the last S.A. meeting.

The resolution addresses the Student Activity Fee Endowment, which has been funded by a $5.00 allocation of the SAF that has been deducted from the SAFC over the past decade. The original intent of this endowment was for it to grow through continued SAF funding and reinvested returns until it would be large enough to that the generated payouts would be large enough to fully subsidize the SAFC component of the Student Activity Fee. For a number of reasons, including the time that it would take for the fund to reach this size, the philosophy behind current students subsidizing future students in a non-progressive manner, and the opportunity cost of letting the fund continue to grow, the Assembly reached a consensus that the SAF Endowment Fund could be used to better benefit undergraduate students. The first provision of the resolution amends Appendix B to stop the $5.00 flowing from the SAFC to the fund beginning this upcoming fall.

The resolution then provides the framework of one potential use of the endowment, which is the creation of a Student Assembly Innovation Fund. Under the proposal, this fund would be administered by a committee to fund innovate and entrepreneurial student-led initiatives that benefit Cornell undergraduates in different ways, similar to the Bartels Co-sponsorship, overseen by Dean Hubbell. Additionally, the fund would not withdraw the full annual return on the SAFC Endowment, which would allow some of the profits to be reinvested and thus would mean that the payout to the Innovation Fund would increase over time.

While the resolution does outline a process that would facilitate the allocations of the funding gifts the fund would create, it requires that these specifications be reviewed over the summer and re-approved by next year’s Assembly before the fund was formally established. This provision simultaneously ensures that the important decision of what course the SAF Endowment would take was not being decided in haste and provides the next Assembly with a foundation to build off. The stipulation also states that if a new resolution is passed next year, it must be approved by the Dean of Students, the Director of the Office of the Assemblies, and yourself before the Innovation Fund is officially established.

The sponsors of the resolution have been researching alternatives for how to best use the SAF Endowment to benefit all students for almost two years. The specific proposal in Resolution 48 is the result of evaluating a multiplicity of options by a mixture of comprehensive quantitative analysis, committee deliberations, and input from Assembly representatives that dates back to the Fall of 2011.

The Student Assembly believed that by haltering the funding being taken away from the SAFc, finalizing a new direction for the SAF Endowment, and creating an opportunity for new students initiatives that does not currently exist, it would be able to better use an under-utilized resource to benefit the undergraduate experience for all Cornell students and truly alter the future culture of student-led initiatives.

I have attached Resolution 48 for reference. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Adam