Undergraduate Council presidential candidate Lamelle D. Rawlins '99 says her complex proposal to revamp the council's budget priorities--now being circulated as a referendum petition--would give students more control over "how their own money is spent."

One of her presidential opponents, Eric M. Nelson '99, says it is not so simple. And another candidate--Elizabeth A. Haynes '98--says she both agrees and disagrees with the referendum's myriad provisions.

The petition, which began circulating Friday, mandates that the council allocate 65 percent of its $120,000 budget to student groups. The council currently budgets 63 percent.

"I've been fighting for more money to go to student groups and for more money to go to house committees for a long time. But I've faced incredible resistance within the [council]," says Rawlins, currently the council's vice president. "With this referendum, I want to give students the right to decide how their money is being spent."

If the petition is signed by 10 percent of the student body, a campus-wide referendum will be held within three weeks, perhaps during the presidential election itself.

Nelson, the council's student affairs committee chair, opposed a resolution last month that raised the council's grants funding level to 63 percent. The proposal was approved by the full council after being heavily amended by Nelson.

Nelson says Rawlins' proposal is complicated and ill-advised.

He says at least $9,000 in student group grants go unclaimed each year. That money, he says, goes back to the finance committee, which doles out additional grants.

"We're not talking small potatoes. This is a lot of money," says Nelson, who is a Crimson editor.

"Students would be surprised to hear how much money we're talking about."

Rawlins' plan also would amend the council's constitution to guarantee that five percent of its budget be reserved for block grants to house committees.

Haynes agrees that more money should be given to student groups. But she says she objects to awarding money only to upperclass houses.

"I have a couple reservations," Haynes says. "It doesn't guarantee money to first-years in any way--It leaves out one-quarter of the stu- dent body."

For two weeks in November, council members argued over the budget submitted by Rawlins and council President Robert M. Hyman '98. It increased grants funding from 60 to 63 percent.

Rawlins says the referendum would prevent what she calls attempts by council representatives to "[ignore] the opinion of the student body."

"The student body is being poorly represented by the council," she says.

The plan also would earmark several thousand dollars in "merit funds" for student groups that the finance committee chooses.

Nelson says a separate merit fund "would imply the rest of the grants process should not be merit-based.