But Yale has found strict guidelines entailother complications.

"Three years ago spending guidelines were verystrict," Naftalis says, explaining that there werespending limits on everything from D.J.'s to foodand photocopies.

"The committee became more of a rubber stamp,"he says. "It didn't allow for subjectivejudgment."

Even when guidelines are in place, theirenforcement presents a challenge.

At Penn, "sometimes people are too willing toignore constitutional rules," Schorr says. "Therearen't enough checks to make sure people followtheir budgets."

Steffen says tracing where funds end up is alsoa problem at Washington University.

"When we allocate money, we don't hold them tospending the money on what they put on theirbudgets," he says. According to Steffen, a grouplast year spent $500 on kegs and "personal items"including a $130 planner.

Group Initiative

Student groups at many schools have becomefrustrated with trying to get funds through theirstudent governments and have tried differentmethods of getting a bigger slice of the pie.

Washington University's Student Unionencourages groups to raise their own funds byrewarding groups that raise their own money withadditional funding.

Instead of bypassing the student governmentsystem, two umbrella groups at U. Penn. havedecided to mobilize their forces within it.

The Performing Arts Council (PAC), whichcoordinates all music, theatre and performancegroups at Penn. decided to get involved when thecouncil tried to standardize funding forperforming groups, says former PAC chair ElizabethP. Scanlon.

"That sort of defeated the purpose of havingmany diverse groups," Scanlon says. "It's all upto the whim of nine people who didn't knowanything about performing arts."

In response, Scanlon led a drive to put PACmembers on the executive committee of the StudentActivities Committee. This year PAC holds three ofthe nine committee spots.

"You have to be politically savvy to get money.We work very hard to get people on SAC to protectour interests," she says.