Events that the SAF has subsidized so far this year include Harvard Ballroom’s semi-formal holiday dance and another dance organized by the Catholic Students Association.

Despite the ticket sales and $950 in grants from the council, the Office for the Arts (OFA) and the Ann Radcliffe Trust, the company still has difficulty covering the cost of costumes and the licensing fees for the ballets they hope to stage. The group, which does not have a large base of graduates, relies heavily on donations from members’ parents, Schnidman said.

Other groups have not encountered the same funding problems faced by the Harvard Ballet Company. The Harvard-Radcliffe Dance Company is sufficiently funded by a grant from the OFA, and occasionally by council grants, said company director Lise T. Lipowsky ’05. Mainly Jazz is also funded by dues and by sources of grant money other than the SAF, according to group director Melissa E. Miller ’04.

Because these groups do not have to purchase rights to the dances they perform, the funds they receive are sufficient, Harvard Ballet Company former Co-director Brynn L. Jinnett ’05 said.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones receive no funding from the University, said Kathie S. Koo ’04, president of the group. The conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) is paid partly by the OFA, but the group is otherwise independently funded, said HRO President Ethan L. Gray ’05.

The CCL, which considers applications for the SAF grants, will discuss how the new grant policy has affected arts groups at its meeting tomorrow.

“Perhaps we can designate a certain portion of the fund to art projects that involve the community in some way,” Mahan said.

—Staff writer Sara E. Polsky can be reached at polsky@fas.harvard.edu.