Undergraduate Student Government’s (USG) College Council (CC) approved allocations to RSOs from all of its funding committees at its Monday meeting. It also passed an amendment incorporating procedures and rules for the recently established Judicial Council into its bylaws and approved nominations for the body’s inaugural members.
The Judicial Council resolution—approved by unanimous consent following brief discussion—lays out the council’s powers and limitations, allowing it to overturn committee actions found to be “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the governing documents of the Undergraduate Student Government.” However, Judicial Council rulings can still be overridden by a three-quarters vote of the CC.
The constitutional amendment creating the Judicial Council passed by majority vote in a referendum last month and will take effect next academic year.
CC later considered nominees for the inaugural Judicial Council: first-year Yadira Padilla and third-years Spencer Lee, Penelope Stinson, and Lulu DeLuca. None of the nominees have previously served on CC.
“I do think the three of us are sort of supposed to bring in a perspective that’s outside of CC,” Stinson said at the meeting.
Following brief questioning, all nominees were approved by unanimous consent. CC also approved appointments to most USG committees, including all committee chairs nominated last week. Newly appointed members of the Elections and Rules Committee will vote internally on a new chair.
By approving funding committees’ allocations to RSOs, CC finalized the Annual Allocations process ahead of next year.
The Coalition of Academic Teams (CAT) allocated $433,283, with the largest allocation going to the Chicago Debate Society, which will receive $103,118. UChicago Model United Nations, UChicago Moot Court, and UChicago Mock Trial received the next-largest amounts at $76,344, $57,372, and $49,651, respectively.
The Community Service Fund (CSF) allocated $48,804 to 21 RSOs, with 13 RSOs receiving no funding. “CSF is very strict about what constitutes community service,” Vice President of Student Organizations Fred Lee said, noting its requirement that more than 50 percent of allocations’ beneficiaries be community members. “If [CSF members] have determined that [what an RSO’s request is funding] is primarily conducted amongst University students on campus, then it wouldn’t be [considered] community service.”
The Program Coordinating Council—which funds large RSOs on campus that offer programming for students— allocated $570,161, with most going to the Major Activities Board (MAB) and the Council on University Programming (COUP), the groups that run events like Summer Breeze and Kuvia. MAB and COUP received $263,647 and $124,500, respectively.
The Student Government Finance Committee (SGFC), which oversees 249 RSOs, allocated $569,855, meeting 28 percent of RSOs’ requested funding. The remainder of its approximately $820,000 budget will be allocated to RSOs who request funds to meet specific needs during the next academic year.
During the Annual Allocations process, SGFC applied progressive cuts to RSOs it funds—organizations receiving more than $10,000 faced a 50 percent cut, while smaller RSOs received smaller percentage reductions to their funding.
The Sports Club Fund allocated $182,617. UChicago Crew received the most funding with $43,591, with the next largest allocation going to Open Ultimate, which received $12,047.
Before adjourning, Class of 2029 Representative Gavin Wynn motioned to add a resolution recognizing CC Chair Ben Fica’s impact on CC to the agenda.
The resolution calls Fica “an extremely caring person” and says he “has dedicated countless hours of his time to the Undergraduate Student Government” and has “spearheaded projects for College Council members, leading to record levels of College Council engagement.”
After a vote exempting the usual one-week waiting period for resolution approval, the resolution was passed by unanimous consent.
“I would like to share three emotions. It’s something my mom makes me do every day,” Fica said. “I feel incredibly grateful, I feel melancholic—I never thought I’d miss this—and I feel excited about the next chapter.”
