The Union Senate passed a unanimous resolution last Sunday calling on the administration to deny Student Events' request to receive 17 percent of the Student Activities Fee directly instead of through the Finance Board.The Union called Student Events' move unconstitutional and detrimental to the ideas of student autonomy and financial oversight. Student Events argues that by controlling its funds and bypassing the F-Board, it could respond faster and more effectively to student wishes. While the club went directly to Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy with its proposal, the Union has argued that a constitutional amendment is necessary for the changes to take place.

The resolution states that "Student Events will no longer be considered a student organization as it will be a committee under the administration without student autonomy if the proposal is accepted," and that "no Student Activities Fee funds will be allocated from the Finance Board towards Student Events if this proposal is not rejected."

Director of Student Events Lauren Barish '08 said that campus social life would improve as a result of the original proposal. She explained that in Student Events' proposal, they had envisioned receiving F-Board funding in addition to direct funding from the SAF. "Even though we would have control over the majority of our budget, we would also work with F-Board . to get additional funding to go above and beyond what the Student Event Fee grants us," she said.

Barish said that one way to make the club's proposed change is through the administration, and for this reason, "we are following a completely legitimate process."

She said Student Events could not be denied funding because, "as a secured organization, we have the right to go to F-Board."

From the Union's perspective, Student Events' request stems from a change made last year on students' tuition bill marking off $100,000 called the Events Fee, which Union members said the administration told them is for presentation purposes. This money becomes part of the Student Activities Fee distributed by the F-Board, Union Treasurer Choon Woo Ha '08 said. The change "does not mean money for Student Events," Ha said.

"It's really the students' money, therefore it should have the student oversight and student autonomy," he said.

Union President Shreeya Sinha '09 said the Union Executive Board would continue to discuss the issue with Eddy starting with a meeting today. "I think there's a lack of respect from the administration for our constitution and why it's not just a piece of paper the Union abides, [but] a social contract amongst all students and club leaders."

In the past weeks, Sinha said that Union members have met with the director and the treasurer of Student Events and the departments of Student Life and Student Activities.

Sinha stated that "if this proposal goes through, it means the Constitution has been violated on several counts." Student Events would no longer be a union-accredited organization in that case, she said. "If this proposal is rejected . then they go through the constitution [to enable change], but if the proposal is accepted, there's nothing to vote for in the Constitution, it's been undermined."

Ha said that the status of Student Events under the constitution would remain the same, but that the F-Board would not allocate money to it.

Barish said that with the proposal, Student Events "would have more control over how the budget is divided up, so we can make changes really quickly, if something isn't going very well one semester but another event really is.and we want more Thirsty Thursdays or Boulevard Events, we can make the change.immediately." She also said it would allow Student Events to focus more on event planning than on financial transactions.

"The scale on which [Student Events] operates is very different from other organizations," Barish said. Student Events has "a much larger budget and has many more frequent events," he said.

Ha said that in his analysis Student Events would be receiving less money under its proposal. Under the Constitution, Student Events is guaranteed a minimum $96,700 per semester and $193,400 per year, but the F-Board can choose to allot the club more considerably more than that, Ha said. Under the proposal submitted to Eddy, Student Events would receive $105,000 per semester, and $210,000 per year.

"In reality, the F-Board does allocate so much more than the baseline because the F-Board realizes the importance of Student Events on campus," Ha said. He said he did not know how Student Events could offer the programming to meet student needs if it received that much less money under the proposal.

Barish said that Ha's analysis was incorrect because she believes Student Events deserves funds from the Union in addition to the Student Activities Fee money the club would receive under its proposal. "The way we created it is intended to keep the same level of funding if not more than we've had before, but the Union will not grant us those additional funds," she said.