About four hours of this week’s Undergraduate Student
Association Council meeting were spent on the Muslim Student
Association attempting to have its budget allocation revised,
arguing that the Budget Review Committee’s new size-and-scope
criterion ““ one of several factors used to determine how much
funding a group receives ““ was not communicated to the
student groups with enough notice.
MSA has a valid complaint. For a process as sensitive and
politically charged as budget allocations, every factor, especially
ambiguous ones, should be thoroughly explained before applications
are filled out so student groups know how to correctly complete
them.
MSA is one of a handful of student organizations that lost a
substantial amount of funding this year largely because the
Associated Students of UCLA slashed USAC’s budget to account
for its tumultuous financial situation in spring quarter. When you
consider that many other student groups, such as the Jewish Student
Union and the Interfraternity Council, received larger sums than
usual, questioning a funding process is expected.
Now that the issue has been voted down, it’s important
that MSA and USAC move on. USAC has a set appeals process to deal
with grievances of this nature, but after this avenue is used,
council has to move on with other business unless it receives more
money to distribute. Consuming inordinate amounts of time beating a
dead horse on council will only hinder its productivity, especially
since it has yet to do much of what it promised last spring.