Student Assembly

Dear President Skorton,

I would like to formally communicate Student Assembly Resolution 50, “Spring 2013 SAFC Funding Guidelines Amendment,” sponsored by SAFC co-chair Matthew Gruber, SAFC co-chair Alykhan Bandali, and S.A. Vice President of Finance Roneal Desai. The resolution passed unanimously at the last S.A. meeting.

The resolution makes a number of critical alterations to the SAFC funding process. The most significant series of amendments requires the SAFC to accept budget applications at least three times per semester, as opposed to the current guidelines which allow only for only one. The second major change removes some of the existing documentation requirements that groups previously had to submit in order to receive funding.

The SAFC and Student Assembly jointly believed that replacing a single applications deadline with multiple opportunities per semester would greatly benefit student organizations. One positive result is that the first budget can be due earlier than in the past, which will allow groups that hold programming during the initial weeks of the semester to receive their allocations faster. On the other hand, groups that do not hold events until later on will now have additional time to better plan and organize themselves. This model was seen as a vast improvement over the existing system, where groups were forced to compile their budgets at the start of classes, regardless of when they need funding. Finally, having multiple applications will not penalize groups that err in their budget requests, consensus that the reduction of documentation only furthered progress towards making the process more navigable for students.

Overall, these changes address issues regarding allocation timelines and application complexity that the SAFC has faced for years. Both the SFAC and the Assembly are confident this amendment will significantly improve the funding process for the average student organization on campus and by extension directly improve the quality of the Cornell undergraduate experience.

I have attached Resolution 50 and its appendix for reference. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Adam