As lights twinkle on Christmas trees in campus dining halls and students dance the night away at winter formals, the campus is getting into the holiday spirit--thanks in large part to the work of the 12 house committees.

Dealing with as much as $25,000 each year, the committees sponsor dances, house spirit activities and capital improvements.

The houses vary considerably in how they handle all that money. Some collect formal dues from their residents; others don't have budgets at all.

"[The budget] is determined by tradition. Last year gives us a basis of what we spend," says Jason T. Peters '97, co-chair of the Kirkland House Committee. "There's no real formal budget because there's no way to tell how much money we take in or spend."

The potential weaknesses in the system were revealed less than a year ago when former Currier House treasurer Natalie J. Szekeres '97 was accused of embezzling $7,550 from that group.

She eventually agreed to return the money, but some at the time complained that the University does not adequately monitor student groups' finances, making it easy for students to steal.

In Currier, financial records were often hand-written, photocopied or simply checkmarked to signify a bill had been paid, sources said last year.

Although student groups have been required for seven years to submit an annual report to the College, house committee chairs previously interviewed by The Crimson said they are not audited by the University or house masters.

They in effect have free reign over spending, house committee officials have said.

The Currier House Committee was involved in another financial dispute last time, this time with Eliot House. Currier officials accused the Eliot House Committee of not paying their part of a joint intersession ski trip the two houses of organized.

Currier students took the dispute to the Office of the Dean of Students. The controversy was eventually resolved when Eliot agreed to pay Currier half the amount that house wanted.

In response to a series of incidents of financial mismanagement in College student groups, Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III this fall instituted a mandatory training program for student treasurers.

"The financial seminars teach treasurers how to manage funds, be a part of the organization's planning process, and will offer accounting procedures to be instituted in the organization," Epps wrote in a September letter.

Starting next fall, all student organizations will be required to submit their annual financial reporters using the software program Quicken.

House committee officials say that they too are now being required to participate in the financial training sessions.