One cause cited as something out of the ordinary was the "Festival for Divestiture," a rally set to take place on Monday protesting the University's investments in companies operating in South Africa. In late April, the full council, for the first time ever, overturned a grants committee rejection, voting to loan $750 to the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee (SASC), the sponsor of the rally originally called the People's Commencement.

The loan has raised questions about political bias in the grants process. Some challenge the objectivity of that grant decision since the vote came shortly after the council had taken a strong stance in favor of divestiture and had asgreed to administer an alternative to the Senior Class Gift--known as the Endowment for Divestiture--which will be held in escrow until the University divests its South Africa-related holdings.

Several council members say that the council may have voted for the loan, despite the fact that the event's budget and sponsors had not yet been set. Grants committee member Felicia A. Eckstein '84 suggests that the council could have helped sponsor the rally, rather than giving the money to another organization Smith doubts whether the council should have funded the event at all .

SASC members Michael T. Anderson '83, insists that the council should make a practice of funding left-wing political groups because "the administration's side is presented over and over again. We're desperate just to try to compete."

While council funding has approved funds for the causes of numerous liberal groups, Smith says that conservative organizations receive more money from alumni and outside organizations than do liberal ones, which accounts for the larger number of requests from leftist groups.

Council members, nevertheless, believe expenditures and grants have been bereft of political bias. One example they cite is the council's decision not to donate money to the Endowment for Divestiture, even though the group has pledged to administer it for up to 20 years.

Though the new grants process has received some measure of criticism, most seems to come from groups among the 41 grant turndowns. And council members agree that Smith--who says he spends about 30 hours a week as treasurer--has developed a workable system basically from scratch.

Although the grants process may be the new student government's most lasting contribution to undergraduate life, its tangible effects in the inaugural year remain unclear.

While the council money helped fund several major student-sponsored conferences and projects and a number of publications, several approved projects may have never materialized. To insure that the funds would be spent to their intended purposes, the council has insisted that groups turn in receipts and detailed spending explanations to receive their grants.

As of last week, 25 groups had not sought the money that the council had set aside for them. These included money for issues of the Harvard Advocate; the Weather, a new freshman newspaper; Padan Aram, a literary magazine; and Lavendar Portfolio, the Gay and Lesbian Students Association's publication. Three projects at Phillips Brooks House had gone unaccounted for. But, in what may be representative of the government's unique gift-giving quality of the council's grants process, not every "untouched" grant belonged to groups with familiar names. Smith was still waiting to hear from the Ethics Society, the Lost City Folk Society and the Economics Association, before opening the council's much-heralded coffers.