"They probably have a better chance of getting money through this process than they did before," he said. "We have $35,000 to give out in grants."

Undergraduate Council Treasurer Jay Kim '95 said the finance committee looks at two basic factors when reviewing grant proposals.

"The criteria are very flexible," he said. "We look mainly at two things, the contributions that the grant would make to the Harvard community and whether the group needs the money. So, we do favor campus-wide activities rather than those that benefit a segment of the University."

Cabot House applied for a grant for the Quad-wide formal, Lansky said.

"The request seemed justified because it would affect so many people," she said. "But of the $400 we requested, they only gave us $250. We'll still be able to put it on, but it just means that we're going to lose more money on it, which means we won't be able to do as many other things."

Recent Meeting

At the meeting two weeks ago between house committees and the council, various plans to help with the houses' financial burdens were discussed, Rocha said.

One option raised in the meeting was to include house committee funding on student term bills in the same way that the council gets money, Lansky said.

Galanek emphasized the need for the houses to take matters into their own hands.

"Winthrop was in the red a few years ago," Galanek said. "We had to do fundraising to get out of debt. We had to focus on having good events. I think that's what Cabot needs to do, work on having good events, not looking for handouts."

Gregoire agreed that the houses were going to have to look beyond the council to solve their financial problems.

"We just don't have the money to do anything about it right now," he said. "We're looking into the problem, though."

Cabot House has not been idle during its crisis, Lansky said.

"We've had fundraisers, very successful ones," she said. "But since we don't have much house spirit, we can't charge house dues, so we still have a hard time paying for events