AB stops short-term allocating

Following the trend of many organizations in the midst of the economic recession, the Boston University Allocations Board informed BU student groups that recent budget cuts have led to the exhaustion of its ‘On-the-Spot’ budget for this semester in an email Feb. 18.

The AB, a student-run organization, receives its budget from the Dean of Students office, which comes from the undergraduate student fee, AB Vice Chairman Jay Dulski said.’ He said the previous system for allocating funds did not guarantee funds for every program.

‘It’s done on a program by program basis,’ Dulski, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, said.’ ‘The student groups submit their programs to us, and we have a variety of criteria and procedures we use in terms of allocating those funds.’

On-the-Spot budgeting refers to funding for last minute necessities for events, such as napkins and juice, Alianza Latina President Francesca Roettger-Moreda said.’

The email outlined the procedure that the AB would take when considering the on-the-spot requests and appeals.

‘If the event is something that we cannot or do not fund, we will deny the event and notify you accordingly,’ AB wrote in the email.’

However, the Office of the Dean of Students may provide more funds to AB, the email said, and student groups can submit their event to be put on a waiting list.’ If the Office of the Dean of Students does provide more money, AB will review the events in the order that they were submitted, according to the email.

‘There is no guarantee that any event placed on the waiting list will actually receive funding,’ it states.

The depletion of on-the-spot funding has student groups searching for other means of sustaining their events, group members said.

‘It just means that we will have to get more creative with fundraising,’ Roettger-Moreda, a CAS sophomore, said.’ ‘We will have to go to different student governments and student unions to get the funding that we need.’

Habitat for Humanity Treasurer John Dickenson said there are more field trips planned for this semester than ever before, perhaps too many for the amount of money that the student group is allocated.

‘If we wanted to go on more field trips, we’d have to request more money from the Allocations Board on-the-spot funding, but if that’s gone, we probably wouldn’t be able to hold [the same number of trips],’ Dickenson, a CAS freshman, said.’

BU Organization for the Mind and Brian Sciences President Greg Guitchounts expressed his disappointment in the cuts.

‘I was kind of upset by the email because my group needs money,’ Guitchounts, a CAS sophomore, said.’ ‘But what we’re going to do is we’re going to fundraise and look for sponsors from outside of BU.”

Roettger-Moreda said the insufficient funds are to be expected in the midst of the recession.

‘It’s not what you want to hear, but due to the economic situation you have to expect it,’ she said.’ ‘It will be more difficult now that on-the-spot funding is depleted, but it’s not impossible.’