"It was a little awkward, but they treated

the request like the request of any other group," said Eckstein.

Kieval added that the proposal included $16 for 40 pastries at 40 cents each. "I was impressed with the way the committee put their objections out in the open" said peter N. Smith '83. last year's treasure, who attended the meeting. "The fact that the co-chair of the committee was also a member of this group didn't faze them."

But council members stressed that the nature of the council-which they said tends to attract students who have previously been active in other organization-makes for frequent overlap, which is not necessarily harmful.

Being involved with an applicant group has been helpful in giving committee members an "idea of what it was like to be on the other side," said Jake Steven '86' a current council member who chaired C&F last year. "We got a chance to see if our procedure makes people uncomfortable," he explained.

Stevens said he experienced a conflict when the committee received several proposals from the Gay and Lesbian Students Association, of which he is a member.

He added that while it was easy to abstain from voting, it is difficult not to become involved in the discussion-especially when a committee member feels he can add new information which the group otherwise would not have.

Stevens said this was especially difficult in the consideration of the association, because there were no other gay students on the committee.

But students say that this link is helped in getting applications for funding from groups that otherwise would not be aware of this resource.

Stevens explained, "In s sense it's the obligation of every council member to make his constitute aware of the council's money but that doesn't make the council member the group's advocate.