The Undergraduate Council's Finance Committee met this Halloween to decide how to dole out part of the $36,000 it gives to student groups each semester.

Up for discussion was a group that is politically correct by all measures.

In its quest to educate the community about an important social problem, the group, like hundreds on campus, has come to rely on the council for a major share of its budget.

The process is supposed to be content-blind. The council's five-student subcommittee that weighs funding decisions, however, had a distinct bias.

Budget hawks on the committee wanted to deny 25 percent of the group's $400 request. They argued that some of the requests were extravagant, particularly in the context of the council's limited budget, under which many groups are denied funding altogether.

The money was cut.

But as soon as the request was axed, one member had second thoughts. Educating the community is a positive thing, the member insisted. It's a good, proactive, socially liberal cause.

The committee agreed. The group is doing something the council likes, after all. The money was restored.

Content-Blind?

Funding from the Finance Committee of the Undergraduate Council is literally the lifeblood of scores of student organizations.

Reviewing some 130 applications from student groups per semester and dispensing some $72,000 per year to many of them, the committee has the power to ignite--or snuff out--a group's ambitions for an entire semester.

Many student groups count on the committee to evaluate their financial status fairly and objectively, with an eye towards preserving a diverse array of groups on the campus.

The council insists that it does this. But efforts to be fair are far from perfect.

At one particular subcommittee meeting, five applications were reviewed. Two of them received a boost in funding for decidedly content-related reasons: committee members deemed the groups socially worthy.

While council members have long denied the existence--and railed against the possibility--of a politicized grants process, the truth is more vague than many council members like to acknowledge:

"Members are quick to remind each other that they're supposed to be objective," says Brian J. Chan '99, who served on Finance Committee last year.