Council creates new rules for student organizations

The Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council unanimously approved new bylaws regarding the certification and funding of new student organizations at the meeting on April 5. The bylaws, which had been introduced at the previous meeting on March 29, passed quickly.

The new bylaws stipulate that newly certified organizations will not be eligible to apply for any of the VSA's Special Purpose Funds "for the semester during which they are certified and for one full semester after their certification, with the exception of the New Organizations Fund,"  as stated now in Article III, Section 6 D. 

The New Organizations Fund is another addition to the bylaws. This fund will be set aside to cover some of the costs of events and materials for newly certified student organizations, as they are now not eligible for other funding.

The new rule also restricts the amount these organizations can receive. According to Article III, Section 13 B, "Moneys from this fund may cover up to 100 percent of costs, not to exceed $2,000." The rules now also require new organizations to submit a budget proposal before they may be certified and to meet with the Finance Committee within three weeks of being certified.

"We really think that this will be a good way to sort of monitor the activity of new organizations to make sure that they are really strong and worthy of being approved," said Vice President for Activities Alexandria Dempsey '09.
The Activities and Finance Committees, led by Dempsey and Vice President for Finance Marcelo Buitron '09, respectively, collaborated to create these bylaws, which they hope will solve some of the recurring issues of the year regarding the certification and financing of organizations. 

Last semester, the VSA Council engaged in a heated discussion over whether or not it should continue to certify organizations, after Buitron declared that as a matter of principle he would not be voting to certify any more for fear of spreading funds too thin. He said that, at least in the short term, the new bylaws relieve some of his concerns.

The new bylaws allow the Council to certify organizations without dipping into the Special Purpose Funds, which, Buitron explained, are budgeted annually and are allocated funds specifically based on the expected needs and requests of existing organizations.
"If a new org gets certified in the middle of the year and they apply to Special Purpose Funds, in many ways they are taking away the money that was budgeted for other orgs," said Buitron. With the changes, however, "A new org is a financial burden on us, but that will not be [taken into account] until next year, so I think that's good. When we do the budget next year we will already incorporate them." 

Though the creation of a new fund is an additional expenditure for the VSA, the new bylaws are mostly in place to combat the unforeseen costs that are common with new organizations. The student activities fee increased the same percent amount as tuition for next year, which means that the VSA will gain about an additional $30,000, according to Buitron. However, when inflation is taken into account, he explained, there is virtually zero net gain.

The New Organizations Fund will be relatively small. "There's probably going to be $5,000 there, or something like that, similar to the amount that is in the residences fund right now," said Buitron. "Yes, it's a small impact, though, on the larger scale of things."

One suggestion frequently posited last semester as an alternative to an organization freeze was a return to a system in which organizations would be recognized before being certified. Under this system, recognized organizations would be able to plan events and book spaces on campus, but they would not be entitled to much VSA funding. This option was seriously considered, though it was put down by some for being too bureaucratic. According to VSA President Jimmy Kelly '09 in a Nov. 12 article in The Miscellany News, the previous system was "laborious and tedious."

The new changes merge both positions. New organizations are fully certified and simply have to go through a waiting period before becoming eligible for funding. "We didn't want to use a two-tiered system. We didn't want to have two classes of organizations," said Dempsey. "But considering the fact that the VSA does not have unlimited funding, we wanted to do something to sort of restrict the ways that the organizations receive funding."

"In theory, you could have been recognized six [or] seven years without being certified, but in this case you just need to wait until you have full access to money," said Buitron. "In essence, the new orgs are at a disadvantage, I guess, but it's just a matter of time."

This solution to the Council's debates over new organizations and funding does not mean that the Council will begin certifying organizations on a lark. The burden of a new organization is not purely financial. "Taking on a new organization is not just risky because of funding," said Dempsey. "We need to think about over-programming. We also felt that this would be sort of another step for new organizations to have to take before they can do full-scale programming."

"This was the best compromise because we're not creating a different system," said Buitron. "It's just a matter of the new orgs having to wait a little in order to get the money because otherwise it's just a mess."