The result is that only $28,000 per year is earmarked for student groups, and the USG Projects Board doles out this money on an event-by-event basis. According to USG Treasurer Rebecca Choi, the termbill fee funds about 50 of Princeton's more than 200 registered student groups.

"A lot of people think that there should be more avenues to go to and more flexible funding available," Choi says. "The Projects Board was originally a last resource for student organizations, but now it's a primary funder."

According to Choi, student groups can also apply for grants from Princeton's academic departments and the dean's office, but most organizations are self-funded--either from membership fees, alumni donations, or other revenues.

"We have a mechanism by which student groups can be created on a whim, and it's a burden to kick out money to those groups," Merriweather says. "In a lot of ways, we're [also] doing what [the college] should be doing anyway," he adds, referring to the USG's shuttles and other services.

The USG fee was raised six years ago from $35 per year but, according to Merriweather, another increase in the near future is unlikely. Even so, he says that the USG provides a lot for what it has.

"We've done a lot with what we have," Merriweather says. "The other Ivy League schools, with the exception of Harvard, don't seem to have the same problems with funding that we do."

Another school where student group funding does not come easy is MIT, where there is no itemized student activities fee. There, the Undergraduate Association (UA) Finance Board receives a sum of $100,000--roughly equal to what the Undergraduate Council at Harvard gives to student groups--from the dean of students' office to distribute to student groups.