According to Senator Phillip Johnson ’11, student groups could formally get food funding for events that met one of three standards: the vacuum standard, integral standard or introductory meeting standard. The vacuum standard pertains to events that cannot happen without food—for example a barbecue. The integral standard is met if it is proven that food significantly enhances an event. The introductory meeting standard simply grants $50 in food funding for all club’s first meeting of the semester.
The new policy does not eliminate these standards, but instead adds another road towards receiving food funding. “The Budgetary Committee has realized that these three standards, while extremely useful in fairly appropriating funds for most events involving food, left a small number of events that could benefit from the presence of food” said Johnson. As an example, Philip mentioned having some sort of food platter after a lecture.
An e-mail has already been sent out to club-heads outlining the new food policy. “The new food precedent is in response to many students’ frustrations that the AAS wouldn’t fund teeny little things that would make events nicer,” said AAS treasurer Peter Tang ‘10. “It doesn’t really cost all that much, but the gains to student activities are pretty apparent, and you’ll see them soon.”
The other funding issue the AAS took on was with regard to funding clubs during school vacations. Earlier in the month, the BC had tabled a request by the Ultimate Frisbee team to get funding for registration fees to its High Tide tournament in Savannah, Ga. during spring recess. For the past three years, the BC has funded the registration fee, and this year it decided to open the question up to the AAS.
At its Monday night meeting, the AAS recommended funding the Frisbee team and even opened the possibility for lodging funding. According to Tang, this opens the way for other groups getting vacation funding in instances when they might not have in the past. “Senators felt that in the past, we largely turned away events that happened during all breaks and Interterm on the presumption that most students aren’t on campus at that time, with the objective of controlling costs,” said Tang. “This semester the AAS has not received as many requests as in past semesters, which is what is spurring our revisiting a lot of issues.”
Tang said that the months from commencement to orientation will remain off limits to AAS spending, but Monday’s decision opens the way for more spending over Interterm, Thanksgiving and Spring Break. “This year’s senate has a lot of new blood in it — a lot of people who haven’t seen the years when we were actually running out of money. And I feel that while they are doing there job, and challenging precedent, and seeing how relevant they are to student activities … I am a little worried that we are going to remove whatever ideas of fiscal responsibility.”
Jeff Gang ’09 of the Ultimate Frisbee team is pleased that the AAS is funding its Savannah tournament registration fee, and maybe even lodging. He has a suggestion for the AAS too. “If the college truly wants to create a vibrant, exciting Interterm,” said Gang, “I think the AAS ought to look into creating a funding category explicitly for events during that time.”