Former President of the Hippocratic ClubAkilesh Palanisamy '98, who had to rely on outsidefunding to keep his group alive, agrees that theCollege should continue increasing funding forstudent groups.

"I refuse to believe that Harvard doesn't havemore money available in its large pool ofresources to give to student groups," he says.

Room for Improvement

For many organizations, however, the need formoney is overshadowed by the need for meetingspace.

Some groups say that scheduling meeting spaceand being able to use it is frequently achallenge.

According to Gaurav A. Upadhyay '00,co-president of the South Asian Association (SAA),on several occasions the SAA has scheduled meetingspace in advance only to find the reservationcanceled at the last minute.

Upadhyay says the worst instance of thisoccurred when the College canceled SAA's spacereservations just two weeks before the group's"Shades of Brown" conference. Upadhyay says thegroup had reserved meeting spaces for theconference three months in advance.

"We've had a number of problems when it comesto finding and keeping spaces for our events," hesays.

When it comes to securing office space, groupsfare no better.

According to a report issued by the Dean ofStudents' Office, the College provides on-campusoffice space for only 27 percent of studentgroups.

Many group leaders say not having office spacehampers their ability to effectively run theirorganizations.

Chong, for example, says she was forced to runDiversity and Distinction "out of two dorm roomsand archives under my bed."

Lacking an office or permanent meeting space,Chong says, undermines the legitimacy of theorganization, making it hard to raise funds andattract members.

"You want to sell advertisements to businesses,but you don't want them to call your dorm room,"she says.

Chong also notes that without office space forstorage, publications are often forced to have theprinted copies of their work delivered to commonareas of the Houses, where they lie unprotectedand vulnerable to damage and theft.