At Wednesday's general body meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students, Undergraduate Finance Board Chair Lily Tran '10 presented three amendments to UFB's constitution. One amendment, if passed by a one-third vote at this Wednesday's UCS meeting, will serve as a check on the UCS president's ability to enter into contracts with the expectation that UFB would provide the funding.
This amendment would require that any contract that the president of UCS enters into - including one currently being negotiated by UCS and The Herald - also be passed by one-third vote of UFB. Under this amendment, if UFB rejects a contract signed by UCS, the contract will not be paid for by UFB.
UFB Vice-Chair Stefan Smith '09 said the "spirit of the language" currently in UFB's constitution is that the board would need to pay for contracts entered into by the UCS president. However, former UFB Chair Swathi Bojedla '07 said the language in the constitution is "pretty cut and dry that it's UFB's authority to decide whether or not to pay for a contract." Bojedla, when she was chair in the 2005-2006 school year, terminated a long-standing contract between UCS and The Herald regarding advertising space.
Tran, who is also on the business staff of The Herald, said the current language in the board's constitution is vague. The new amendment is meant to prevent any ambiguity and to provide a means for clear discourse between UFB and UCS about the dollar amounts and payment of future contracts.
Smith said the reason this amendment has been brought forth is to potentially "prevent the abuse of power" by the UCS president, though he added that UFB did not foresee the current UCS President Brian Becker '09 entering into a contract without consulting UFB.
Ryan Lester '11, UCS student activities chair who also serves on UFB, points to a new potential advertising contract between The Herald and UCS as the main reason that UFB has brought up the amendment so early in the year, saying the contract is "what this is basically about, although they are all talking in code."
The potential contract, which has gone through several negotiations within the past two weeks, is currently for a weekly half-page advertisement in The Herald for any Category III student group or UCS to freely use. It would cost $2,025 per semester if signed by Becker and approved by UFB.
Since Becker has yet to formally present the contract to UFB, Tran said UFB could not comment on it. Becker has also declined to comment about the specifics of the latest contract, except to state that he has not set a time frame for presenting the contract to UFB or for signing it at all.
Becker said that based on "anecdotal" evidence he thought having ad space in The Herald was desirable for student groups. "It was something recognized in years past that is really beneficial," he said.
But Lester said student groups had not had any input on whether they want the contract. "I honestly don't know that student groups would be in favor of a BDH contract if they understood the changes in UFB policy regarding their publicity funding," he said, since spending on the contract could mean decreased funds for other forms of publicity, such as table slipping and posters.
Tran said that one form of spending does not have to preclude the other. "I don't think that UFB should take such a strong stance about the contract. We shouldn't use the BDH contract, if it happens, as an excuse to not give money to the student groups for table-slips. It's not necessarily one or the other," Tran said.
UCS Vice-President Michael MacCombie '11 will head UCS's initiative to determine whether or not student groups actually want the contract. "I am going to be going around to student groups this week to see if they have a need and a want for using space in the paper to advertise their events," he said.
But Lester, who said student groups haven't had enough of a voice in the matter so far, said he worries that "UCS wants the contract on their list of accomplishments."
Lester has been working to give the newly formed Brown University Activities Council a voice at UFB. BUAC consists of members from all Category III student groups on campus and will elect a representative to serve on UFB in time for the meeting this Thursday.
Tran said she hopes that "BUAC will be a great resource to us." She added, "It's not UFB's job to decide arbitrarily (whether to support the contract), because the money is held in trust by student groups."
