A proposal on the allocation of Student Union Finance Board funds to chartered clubs was presented to the Constitutional Review Committee at its third town hall meeting last Saturday. Three students as well as most of the committee members attended the meeting. Andrew Husick '11, the president of the Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society, submitted the proposal, which suggested that F-Board evaluate requests for funds based on the merit of the request without taking into consideration how many funds that club may have from fundraising efforts independent of the Student Union.

Adam Hughes '11 also attended the meeting in support of the funding proposal.

Husick said that the current system of allocating funds "encourages people not to go out and fundraise, to not work hard," and that it "[allows] the F-Board to direct club leaders about how to spend their fundraising money."

The current system makes no stipulations regarding fundraising money, so members of F-Board are allowed to take that money into consideration.

The proposed amendment does not alter any text currently in the Constitution but adds a clause forbidding the use, view or discussion of independent fundraising accounts in fund allocation.

The Constitutional Review Committee was formed last semester pursuant to Article 13, Section 1 of the Student Union Constitution. The article states that an independent group must be formed every four years and will be "charged with conducting a full review of all aspects of the Union, including the operation of clubs, Secured Organizations, and Union Government."

While the Committee's meetings are closed to the public, the town hall meetings allow students the opportunity to voice concerns and submit proposals for the Committee's consideration.

The proposal, according to Husick, provides a way for the Finance Board to evaluate funding requests based only upon their constitutional merit and their impact on the student body instead of considering extraneous factors, such as how much money the club may have raised on its own.

He also said that it is not possible for F-Board to fairly consider every factor that goes into how much money a club has raised on its own for every funding request, so none of the factors should be taken into account.

Waltham Group Coordinator Nate Rosenblum '10 spoke to the Committee to share his opinion that WBRS and BTV should not be secured organizations, which are guaranteed a certain amount of funding each year under the Constitution.

He said that he is "not sure what they have to do with the University's mission per se" and that they should exist as chartered clubs that can request funding.

Gideon Klionsky '11 who is affiliated WBRS could not be reached despite repeated requests for comment.

Rosenbaum also suggested that the baseline amounts of funds promised to secured organizations under the Constitution should either be followed or abolished as a constitutional provision, citing the fact that Waltham Group received $250 less than the amount allotted to it this year.

The Committee said that it would consider the proposals and questions posed at the town hall meeting in its executive session deliberations.

Jessie Steinberg '10 wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the turnout at the town hall was average. "My hope is that the low turnout is in part due to students' confidence in the ability of their representatives," Steinberg wrote in his e-mail.

She also encouraged students to join the conreviewupdates listserv if they would like updates on the constitutional review process.