Cabot House's financial troubles have focused attention on an Undergraduate Council decision to slow extra funding to cash-strapped house committees.

In the past, the Undergraduate Council has given a portion of its surplus money at the end of the academic year to the house committees. But citing its own fiscal shortcomings, the council created a new bylaw last year that allows it to keep that money, according to council vice president Brandon C. Gregoire '95.

Several students said officials from the house committees met with council representatives two weeks ago to discuss the issue.

Dana W. Lansky, chair of the Cabot House committee, said the lack of council funds has been devastating to her house's small budget.

"When our administration took over last January, we only had $700 to start off with," she said. "We're not sure exactly why we had so little, but other houses start out around the $10,000 range. Now we're stuck with this little amount of money. It has been a challenge for us to provide what we want to do for the house."

For houses with larger budgets, the drop in council funding didn't have as much effect, said Kirkland House committee chair Mary E.M. Rocha '95.

"We've always had a larger budget, so the U.C. money was just icing on the cake for us," Rocha said. "But houses with smaller budgets like Cabot really counted on that money."

Under the new system, the houses, like all other student organizations, can request grant money from the Undergraduate Council, Gregoire said. But Winthrop House committee chair Kristen M. Galanek '95 complained that the house committees weren't given adequate notice of the change.

"The grant proposals had to be in at the beginning of the fall semester," she said. "That didn't give us much time to figure out what we needed."

Cabot House was lucky to find out about the new system, Lansky said.

"We were actually the only house that knew about this system," Lansky said. "And that was just because our secretary happens to be on the finance committee of the U.C."

Gregoire, however, maintained that the council's decision was proper.

"The U.C. is for campus-wide events," he said. "We have a different mandate than the house committees and a different source of funding. The houses are for house spirit, not for the campus as a whole."

It's that kind of reasoning that scares house committees. Many fear they will be at a disadvantage when applying for the grant funds, according to North House committee chair Katherine A. Woo '95.

"The U.C. is more into funding campus-wide activities than ones that just affect one house," she said. "So it seems like we would be at a disadvantage when we have to compete for money with student groups that sponsor campus-wide events."

But Gregoire said house committees wouldn't necessarily be at a disadvantage. In fact, the amount of money now available to the houses could exceed the number of extra dollars distributed in the past. Over the last two years, $11,000 and $8,000 were given to the houses in direct stipends, he said.