Student group funding process needs to be simplified, streamlined through online applications

Student group funding is like an obstacle course within a maze. You don’t know where you’re going, and you have to jump over many hurdles. The Undergraduate Student Association Council, which controls much of student group funding, needs to streamline the process.

Currently, the problem is that there are numerous different applications ““ too many for a small student group to keep track of. This may be why nearly 70 percent of the 848 currently registered student organizations did not apply for student organization operational funding, one of the largest sources of funding.

Successful groups often have an entire team or committee dedicated to applying for funds. The Pediatric AIDS Coalition, which hosts Dance Marathon, has three people dedicated to working on funding applications.

Combining these applications into a single online application would ease the lives of many students and would help untangle a messy process.

The finance committee chair, budget review director and internal vice president are all undertaking efforts to ease the process of applying for funds. Yet the fact that all of these offices have to spend so much time and effort on getting the word out about USAC funding points to the larger issue: there’s too much red tape in applying for funding.

The USAC finance committee informed many groups at Enormous Activities Fair about funding sources, according to Isaac Rose, chairman of the committee. Matt Love, budget review director, makes sure that USAC puts ads in the Daily Bruin to inform students of upcoming deadlines and goes out of his way to make sure all groups can access the funds his office oversees. According to Rose, these efforts have led to more groups applying for funding.

To further help student groups navigate the bureaucracy, USAC created a “How To Guide” for student groups. But at 50 pages long, the guide is proof that the system needs to be simplified.

Starting a student group is extremely easy at UCLA. All you have to do is submit your information online and you’ll be registered with the Center for Student Programming. But that’s where the ease ends. If your group needs funding, there are 20 different sources of funding listed on the USAC website. Many of these funding sources come from USAC, but there are also funds from the Center for Student Programming, Associated Students UCLA and the Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.

The 20 sources of funding all have their own instructions, formats and rules. Some are online forms, some are Word documents that need to be e-mailed and some need 10 copies to be submitted. Hearings are required for some sources, optional for others and not offered for the rest.

Combining these funding applications into one common application would make it simpler for student groups to access money that comes from their own student fees.

Though the various sources of funding all have different applications, most of them ask for a description of the program, the program’s goals, the statement of need, expected attendance and a detailed budget. This could make up the required part of the application, while the rest could be specific for the funds an applicant group is applying for.

While applications should be combined, the funding sources should stay separate. It would be easiest to have a general student group fund for everybody. But having a source that encourages cultural programs, one that encourages academic groups, and another for advocacy helps our campus benefit from diverse types of programs and groups.

USAC could set up this common application online, allowing student groups to select which sources of funding they want to apply for. The funders can then be sent electronic applications of those interested in applying for their fund.

Because so many funding sources are involved, there would have to be a coordinating organization to make any headway on streamlining the application process. It just so happens that Jasmine Hill, president of USAC, has called for a meeting of the Funding Study Group, an organization whose explicit purpose in the USAC bylaws is “examining and improving USAC’s funding processes to make them simpler and more equitable.”

According to Hill, this group hasn’t been used in years, and should help bring the different funders to the table for a discussion on how to increase access to their money. The group meets on Friday and is the perfect forum for removing all the hoops that student groups have to jump through to apply for funds.

Students pay more than $100 per year in USAC fees. Why is accessing this money so difficult?

_Think getting funding is easy? E-mail Ramzanali at [email protected]. _
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