The funding increase is due to what University officials described as a positive response to the program's efforts over the past three semesters, since the program began in spring 2006.
"In the initial semester of the fund, we received $20,000, which extended into a full-year program for $30,000 last year, and now we've reached the goal for the originally proposed amount of $40,000," said Shelley Adriance, coordinator for student activities, who helps administer the fund.
The fund was intended to support alternative nighttime programming by student groups in the wake of the Queer Alliance's 2005 Sex Power God party, when dozens of students required emergency medical attention due to excessive alcohol consumption. Funding is awarded to individual events and is separate from the funding student groups receive from the Undergraduate Finance Board.
"It allows newer groups or individual event ideas to show some success when they go in and request budget money," Shelley said.
Student groups may only use the fund twice per year. "Otherwise, I'll hit my cap with the same groups each year," Shelley said. "We try to make the best use of the funding to allow the maximal amount of groups to be successful."
The fund has already been used this semester, helping to finance a movie night held on Lincoln Field by the Brown Film Society and the Orientation Welcoming Committee during First Weekend. The College Hill Kick-Off on Wriston Quadrangle was also financed in part by the fund, Shelley said.
Shelley said the ideas for events this year may include a mini-golf game through a University building, disco rollerblading at the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center and a collective comedy exhibition showcasing all campus comedy groups in one setting.
"There are a lot of ideas out there, and I just don't know what I'll see in the end," she said.
