Proposed reforms to the club funding system will include cuts to secured groups and create a new group to allocate funds for campus events, according to a memo from Student Union President Jenny Feinberg '07 to the Administration.The memo, which was sent to Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy last Tuesday, is the first written summary of Feinberg's plan for club finance reform, and comprises the early stages of what will become a proposed amendment to the Student Union Constitution. The document is a result of almost a year's worth of research into the Student Activities Fee by Feinberg's administration, during which Union officials met with leaders of nearly every student group.

Almost all of the more than 200 student-run clubs at Brandeis are funded through the SAF, a fee charged to every student and equal to one percent of tuition, or about $331 this year. The fund created by this fee, also commonly referred to as SAF, currently totals about $1 million and is distributed pursuant to the Union constitution. Any amendment to the constitution requires a two-thirds approval by student voters.

Currently, eight secured groups receive a set percentage of the total fund each semester, totaling approximately 60 percent of the total SAF: the Justice, WBRS, the Archon, BEMCo, BTV: 65, the Waltham Group, Student Events and the Student Union. The Finance Board distributes the remaining money to over 200 chartered groups on a request-by-request basis.

After telling the Justice she hoped to bring a proposal before the Union Senate Sunday, Feinberg said she delayed her presentation because of still-unresolved issues with the Archon, the University's yearbook, and uncertainties surrounding the structure of the Campus Programming Board, which would allocate money to groups for event planning under the proposal. Archon had not completed publication of the 2005 yearbook at press time, and Editor in Chief Rebecca Gedalius '07, who is also a copyeditor for the Justice, said the 2005 Archon suffered from major staff shortages.

Gedalius said she didn't understand how Feinberg could blame Archon for delaying the proposal. She said the only Union official to discuss SAF reform with the Archon-F-Board Chair Harrison Chizik '07-only approached the group last week. Gedalius said she fully complied with the Union's financial inquiries.

Eddy could not be reached to comment on the memo.

"It's more than just finances with the yearbook," Feinberg said, citing organizational issues and frequent delays in publication.

The most significant change outlined in the memo is the creation of a separate Student Programming Board, or SPB, "to guarantee that broad-based student opinion is included in the creation of campuswide programming."

This body would act as somewhat of an F-Board for events, not planning programming but simply allocating money to other groups and facilitating co-sponsorship between groups, who would then plan the event.

The programming budgets of the Student Union, WBRS and Student Events would go toward the SPB, the memo said, and a majority of SPB members would need to approve events. Although the Justice was unable to confirm the amounts of these budgets by press time, Feinberg said she wanted the SPB to have approximately $100,000 to allocate annually.

The Student Union, WBRS, Student Events, the Intercultural Center and Hillel would each have two representatives on the board, and there would be two members-at-large elected by the student body, the memo states. Each group, like each student-elected representative, would have their own vote, for a total of seven votes. An event would need to receive a majority of the votes to gain funding.

"[The ICC and Hillel] represent major constituencies that are often left out of conversations regarding campuswide programming," Feinberg said. "Since people mistakenly think Hillel has too much power, major campuswide events happen without kosher food or [Hillel's] perspective is completely left out."

Hillel expressed support for the SPB.

"The Student Programming Board will work as a team, bringing together a diversity of ideas and perspectives to best serve the Brandeis community," President Jonathan Horowitz '06 wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

The ICC was given representation because of its history of planning successful, well-attended events, Feinberg said.

The ICC co-chairs could not be reached for comment.

Feinberg explained the rationale behind the SPB by saying, "Every time groups come together to plan a major event on campus, there is so much more support."

After consulting with other Student Events staff members Monday night, Director of Student Events Helen Pekker '06 said she is excited about the SPB, reflecting a change in earlier statements to the Justice in which she had defended the group's current structure.

"SE feels that this will allow for more student involvement and more successful events," Pekker said. "Brandeis is a very student-driven campus, so the SPB would be great for its students." Although Pekker said SE's current level of student input is good, she added "there's definitely room for improvement."

The memo says secured groups receive a "disproportionate" portion of the SAF. It is especially troublesome because the F-Board is able to grant less than 60 percent of the total money requested by chartered groups, the memo says.

Feinberg told the Justice Sunday that the F-Board should receive 50 percent of the SAF, and while she declined to disclose the specifics of proposed cuts to secured groups, she did say BTV and the Waltham Group would not see any cuts in the amendment, while WBRS and Student Events' budgets for co-sponsorship are unnecessary and inefficient, lamenting that too many chartered groups turn to WBRS and Student Events to help fund events, when groups should be requesting that money directly from the F-Board.

WBRS General Manager Julie Craghead '07 said she agrees that WBRS's programming resources should be a part of the SPB, citing communication errors in the past that occurred when groups did co-sponsorships.

She remained confident that the quality of WBRS would not be sacrificed, even if the radio station faces cuts.

"We understand that our money comes from the student body, and if money can be best spent funding their groups, that's fine," Craghead said.

But when asked about the elimination of WBRS's own emergency funds, she said, "It does make me a little worried." The emergency funds would be cut in conjunction with the creation of a "Capital Expenditures Fund," detailed in the memo and reported on first by the Justice last week.

This fund would be created by setting aside a percentage each semester from F-Board funding in case of emergency needs from secured groups, who could access the funds through F-Board requests.

Feinberg also said one-sixth of BEMCo's budget is devoted to repaying a loan from the University for a new truck several years ago, and that any cuts to BEMCo's budget could be compensated for by the Capital Expenditures fund.

Feinberg said no currently chartered groups would receive secured funding under the proposal. She told the Justice last week that the Student Union would see significant cuts in its funding under the proposal, and Sunday elaborated by saying the Union could take a cut of almost 50 percent.

According to the memo, every secured group, with the exception of the Justice, would be given a baseline of money to use in a budget that would need to be submitted to the F-Board. The F-Board will have to approve secured groups' submitted budgets, and secured groups can ask for money from the Capital Expenditures Fund beyond the designated budget. However, "Groups will only receive the money they need to function properly as an organization," the memo says.

As a lone exception, the Justice will need only to have its budget approved by the union treasurer, Feinberg said.

"We never want the government to stall the media from doing what it needs to be doing. It needs to remain a check on the government," she said.

Feinberg said the Justice has been using a printer that costs more than necessary, and that Editor in Chief Dan Hirschhorn '07 has been working to locate and switch over to a less expensive printer.

Hirschhorn said the Justice had already printed three issues with a less expensive printer, including this issue, and that once he is confident the new printer is as reliable as the old, the switch will be made permanent, allowing the Justice to operate with approximately 25 percent less SAF funding.

"We wholeheartedly support a 25 percent decrease in funding," Hirschhorn said. "Anything we can do to help the community [the Justice] serves without compromising the quality of our publication is fine."

Editor's Note: The Justice is a secured organization receiving about six percent of the Student Activities Fee. Click here for the Justice's full journalistic disclosure.

Click here for the full text of the SAF memo.