With a significantly expanded budget due to a $10 hike in the student activities fee, the Undergraduate Finance Board "had the opportunity to increase the budgets for a lot of groups" for 2006-2007, though the Undergraduate Council of Students took a notable $10,000 budget reduction, according to UFB Chair Swathi Bojedla '07.
Among the groups with significant budget increases are the Brown Concert Agency, which received about $20,000 more than it did last year, and the Brown Film Society, which received an additional $5,000 for next year, according to UFB's budget reports, which were made public Monday.
UCS applied for $14,750 for the 2006-2007 school year, roughly comparable to this year's budget of $14,394.80. But the council was allocated only $4,313.40.
"The reason (for UCS's budget cut) is that for UCS meetings - there is one every week - they spend $240 to have tables and chairs set up by a facilities manager," Bojedla said. "That cut alone was $6,000 from their budget," she said.
"(UFB) didn't really think it was appropriate to give that much money for table and chair set-up given that a lot groups set it up themselves," she continued. "Even in UFB, we come early and we set up tables and chairs for our meeting," she said.
Zachary Townsend '08, vice president of UCS, said though he believes the cut is "significant, especially considering the $100,000 increase in (revenues from the) student activities fee," he generally agrees with UFB's decisions.
"I don't know why we can't set up our own tables," he said. Townsend added that though he is unsure whether UCS will appeal the decision, he believes it is unlikely.
Bojedla said she expects the cut to be "controversial," but she stressed the reduction is not final and encourages UCS to continue dialogue with UFB.
She added that UFB has yet to "see why (UCS) should be treated differently than other student groups."
BCA's budget increased in part because of a deal made between UFB and BCA last year. According to UFB's budget reports, last year's agreement "allowed for (UFB) to spend an additional $20,000 (earned by BCA) on student groups in a year where we would have had to cut funding severely without such help," Bojedla said.
"At the end of the year last year, (the $20,000 given to UFB by BCA) made a huge difference for UFB," Bojedla said. "We decided to give it back to the BCA." She also cited the "very successful" concerts BCA has had in the recent past.
Joe Posner '07, the publicity director of BCA, said he is unsure how BCA will use the money next year. "Prices are always going up," he said, adding that the money probably reflected the rising cost of Spring Weekend and a reimbursement of the "loan" last year.
Posner said he hopes to get more student input on how BCA plans concerts and uses the funds in the future.
Watershed, an environmental and cultural journal for Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design, received an additional $2,000 per semester, according to Bojedla. Watershed wrote in its budget proposal, "Because we are no longer able to rely on the Center for Environmental Studies and the Creative Arts Council to supplement our printing, we nervously turn to UFB for a greater percentage of our printing costs than in the past."
Bojedla said UFB chose to support Watershed because "it is a high-quality publication."
The Brown Film Society received an increase in its budget as well - from $12,542 to $17,586 - because it "dramatically increased attendance" at its screenings, Bojedla said. The budget had been cut in previous years because of sparse attendance.
Overall, Bojedla said "there weren't many cuts at all" because of the increase in the student activities fee.
