Following more than three hours of debate, the Undergraduate Council last night overwhelmingly approved a fall semester grants package worth nearly $41,000.

The grants are to be distributed among 103 campus organizations. The total package exceeds the amount allocated for distribution by the Finance Committee by more than $800, with the extra money to come from funds the council awarded last year that were never collected.

The council received requests for more than $200,000 in grants, according to Finance Committee Chair Melissa Garza '94. Garza said the amounts awarded were determined by each group's demonstrated need.

But Kirkland House representative Jennifer W. Grove '94 said that the council's grants process is flawed.

"We need more money and it needs to be distributed in a different fashion," Grove said. "Large groups should get more money and [Phillips Brooks House] groups in particular should get more money."

Grove said that she and finance committee member Sourav Goswami '96 would move in the next few weeks for the Council to increase its annual fee from $20 to $50 per student.

Harvard's fee is the lowest in the Ivy League, according to Grove, with Cornell University charging its undergraduates $55 and most schools charging between $92 and $100.

Unconventional Grants

Besides the usual recipients of funds in the biannual appropriation--including various campus ethnic groups, political organizations and student publications--the council awarded $15 to the Harvard Zoso Club for Led Zeppelin appreciation and $86.95 to the Harvard Snowboarding Club for the purchase of a snowboard.

The Varsity Basketball Cheerleaders were awarded nearly $150 for the purchase of 16 pom-pons and the Rugby Club received $520 for the purchase of rucking pads.

Goswami said that he suffered a serious neck injury playing rugby last year because he was not wearing the pads.

In addition, the Texas Club of Harvard received $65 to fund a barbecue. The group's stated purpose, according to Garza, is to provide a social forum for "students from Texas and those who want to be from Texas."

Several grants prompted lengthy debate. The Council passed a motion to double the $350 that had been recommended by the Finance Committee for the Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society.

It also awarded $450 to Diaspora, a journal of Black culture, overruling the Finance Committee's recommendation of no funding. The council increased funding for the Phillips Brooks House Mission Hill After-school Program from a recommended $221.25 to $431.25.

But most motions for funding beyond what the Finance Committee had recommended did not win the full council's approval.