36 Comments
Wikimedia Commons has its limits, kay?
Today is a big day! F@CU has just released their 2010-2011 allocations for your governing boards. Let’s talk big numbers and little percentages, shall we?
Activities Board: $393,459 granted, 7.4% increase from last year, 4.4% cut from requested allocation, which was $411,568
Club Sports Governing Board: $206,200 granted, 17% increase from last year’s allocation, $213,800 originally requested
Community Impact: $84,765, 23.6% increase from last year’s allocation, $86,440 requested
Inter-Greek Council: $9,680.56 granted, 47% decrease from last year’s allocation, 63% decrease from original request, which was $26,164. This bummer-rama is partly due to Barnard’s relative lack of involvement in Greek life the fact that Barnard students do not pay student life fees to the IGC. Part of F@CU’s reasoning:
Following much deliberation, the committee has decided to allocate a total of $9,680.56 to the Inter-Greek Council for the 2010-2011 academic school year. This represents a 47.0% decrease from the previous year’s allocation and a 63.2% decrease from the original allocation request. The decrease above is very significant and the committee would like to stress that this is not a reflection on the performance of the IGC. The cut is mostly due to the cut in funding from CCSC, ESC, and GSSC proportional to the percentage of Barnard students in the IGC. Given that Barnard students are not paying student life fees toward the IGC (as Barnard has not recognized the IGC and does not participate in its funding), CCSC, ESC and GSSC have decided only to fund their own constituencies and thus reduce IGC’s allocation to reflect that decision. Please refer to SGA’s supplemental letter for more details on their intended $1000 gift to IGC which is not part of F@CU.
Student Governing Board: $208,156 granted, 18% increase from last year’s allocation, $292,014 requested
Take a look at last year’s numbers here (all governing boards got a baseline 15.08% cut for 09-10) and check F@CU’s site for published letters to each governing board explaining the allocations. May you be spared from math until first semester rains Calc II down on you!
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36 Comments
@Eeek!!! Cat Fight!
@John Will Club Sports increase in funding mean that some action will finally be taken for club soccer?
@how old are you?! FIVE?!
@Anonymous Seeing as the youngest kid to ever go to college was 11, I’m guessing he’s at least 11.
@not bitter yeah the girls who get cut from all the sororities really want to go to a community service event that \serves the community\ with a bunch of girls who said HELL NO to them joining, sounds like a fantastic time. let me pay 5 dollars for some barbeque or donation event at a sorority so i can mingle with some people who fucking hate me but will maybe (but probably not) throw me a free smile so i can pay the 5 bucks, i’m your friend if i can get some second rate girls not good enough for your sorority to rally and come out for your philanthropy so you can save face and stay alive for the social events where the real fun happens where oh guess what I CANT COME . This is a hunch, but I think these girls who get the boot from every sorority or really anyone in general would benefit much more from another event servicing the community not greek related where they don’t have to spend hours dressing up, kissing some girls’ asses and dishing out some dumb ass compliments and can just be themselves.
@i'm really sorry... but you come off as nothing but bitter.
it’s really an unfortunate slap in the face to the greek community for every other major group’s funding to go up despite the decrease in IGC’s funding. i think think is exacerbated by the fact that we have seen growth in the prevalence of greek life across barnard and columbia.
while SGA does have to make it’s own decisions (and not funding sororities is a wrong one), columbia should not respond by cutting the funding.
also, bitter girl, what events did you go to where you had to dress up and put on a fake smile? from the events that we have thrown, our support is almost exclusively within the greek community, because it’s hard to make greek events awesome with NO MONEY.
finally, the girls probably said “HELL NO” to you because you think this way. look at the pledge classes across the sororities. while everyone does love the hotties, it’s about who you get along with, and each group has it’s own flavor. if you were being fake and showy throughout recruitment, the girls see through that. it’s not about hiding who you are, it’s about being normal and seeking out the girls who you like and who like you.
and the real fun doesn’t happen where you can’t go… the real fun happens whenever you’re with your friends. clearly, you’re too busy being bitter to let your gripe with the greek system slide and have a good time.
@not bitter i didn’t say you guys shouldn’t get money! im all for it! i agree that its not fair. i’m merely commenting that the girls who were excluded feel as i discussed above and probably find it painful to mingle at these community events, which I think is a fair statement to make, don’t you? If you applied early to Harvard got rejected and three of your best friends went there would you find it joyful to go visit them at your dream school right after the painful rejection?? rejection sucks, its a fact and its naive to say this situation is any different. Furthermore, you’re comments suggest that everyone who is cut is fake or awful or whatever nonsense you are implying. I am a bitter bitch which I make clear by the title “not bitter” (which was sarcasm indicating I am which you missed but that’s okay), but don’t deny there are some sweet girls who probably feel the same as me. Lets not make general statements now, we know those are always dangerous. so girlfriend, step off, cause you don’t know me like that.
why don’t you try being nice homegirl, amen.
@F@CU is making a bad problem worse Sorority Life is stuck in an unfortunate Catch-22 with regards to Barnard and SGA. On the one hand, Barnard uses sororities’ alleged selectivity as grounds to refuse recognition. At the same time, a lack of recognition, funding, and the inability to add a desperately needed 5th sorority is what has made Recruitment overpopulated and more selective in recent years.
It is a shame that Barnard’s student government refused this past semester even to provisionally recognize a student community that has become diverse and includes a large proportion of its population (10%+ ?). Those groups that fund Greek Life at Columbia turned to hardball tactics in order to bring the issue to a head, and we will see the result.
In the meantime, however, their action will hurt all of Greek Life, since the dramatic 47% cut (in a year of trending increases to other boards) is greater than the proportion of Greek Life that attends Barnard. The IGC, which acts together on big events, will have to scale back social and community service programming. Ironically, fraternities and sororities may have to increase dues paid to bridge their funding gap, increasing the financial barriers to entry.
@There needs to be an edit function... *** Sorry, everyone. Just thought for clarity’s sake that I should note sororities do NOT have an interview process, they have formal recruitment, that is HUGELY standardized, regulated, and optimized to give all the girls who want to join sororities the chance to meet and get to know as many of the current sisters as possible and vice versa.
@Just to clarify... If you are going to question F@CU’s decision to fund ‘discriminatory’ organizations like sororities and fraternities, then I suggest you also consider other groups on campus who receive funding that involve a selective process – like performing arts groups, volunteer groups, even sports teams at the club level. Just as these other groups do, Greek organizations host events and fundraisers that are open to the university, and most importantly, do community service in and out of Morningside Heights… So, they do in fact spend a lot of time giving back to students and the community.
@100% Spot on.
@Also consider ALL the on-campus positions/orgs that have interview processes: Varsity Show, COOP, NSOP leaders, RAs…
@um please don’t tell me that you think of RA’s, who WORK FOR YOU the same way you think of varsity show participants? just checking.
@Lead by example It almost makes me wonder why F@CU funding to IGC isn’t cut completely. Barnard SGA kind of has a point. Barnard is saying, “we recognize student clubs as non-discriminatory groups.” and thus sororities who select their members are technically not clubs, and thus not eligible for any funding.
Why are the other undergraduate councils okay with supporting and funding discriminatory groups?
Why doesn’t IGC raise all their own funds through membership dues (which further discriminate against students who couldn’t afford them?)
Since F@CU funding doesn’t go to alcohol, how exactly is the part of the Columbia community who doesn’t participate in Greek like benefit from IGC funding? At least cultural groups, etc. offer opportunities available to all Columbia students. Besides free booze, how does IGC benefit non-greek students? Especially students who don’t get accepted into sororities or fraternities?
@Agreed, but... I agree that neither FaCU or SGA should fund Greek life. However, based on the reasing that SGA does not fund IGC because it is discriminatory, how about a cappella groups? I am both a Barnard student and a member of an on-campus a cappella group, and of course I want funding, but aren’t we a discriminatory group as well? If you can’t sing, you aren’t going to make it…
Has anyone solved this “non-discriminatory” thing yet?
@Anonymous *reasoning
@Anonymous why don’t we kick all the barnard girls outa greek life then?
@Used to be in the Know Last I checked Barnard students will be phased out of greek life as per a compromise reached between SGA, other council leaders and the PanHellenic Council. They will not be completely eliminated but there will be a Barnard student quota of sorts.
This budget cut will likely continue unless SGA votes to give funding to IGC next year and not simply the pathetic $1000 “gifts” of the past (at least) 3 years that didn’t even reach Greek life due to Lerner Hall Bureaucracy.
@Anonymous No official, final decision has been made regarding Barnard participation in Formal Recruitment. And if Panhellenic did choose to make changes to their recruitment process, that would be an autonomous decision based on their own goals and needs.
Also, the “h” in Panhellenic is not capitalized. The Pan-Hellenic council is a completely separate organization.
Check your facts, kids.
@Cut the girls Barnard WOMEN
@wait, so everyone except IGC got a huge increase?
sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
@LOL SHUT UP IS THIS FOR REAL?! LMFAOOOOOO. Wow, our board of directors actually have a sense of humor!! LMAO!! Our funding department at Columbia is called FaCU?! That is pronounced “Fa–Ku”! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@how old are you?! five?
@DONT BE SO NAIVE Don’t be so naive. What, you think our “adult” board of directors don’t like pulling a joke from time to time? Even Cali’s governor Swarzeneggar issued a memo where the words spelt out “F-U-C-K Y-O-U”. don’t believe me? google it.
Yeah, I am so immature.
@ummm you do realize the “board of directors” you’re talking about are students, right? Of course they have a sense of humor.
@So... …basically this means that there will be even LESS free alcohol at frat parties.
The war on fun shits on us again.
@Anonymous ummm IGC University funds never go to pay for alcohol.
The War on Fun sucks, but this has nothing to do with it.
@hehehe Ur funny!
@I have to disagree with your assertion of “Barnard’s relative lack of involvement in Greek life.” Barnard girls are hugely active in the Greek community (and, while we’re at it, elsewhere on campus, too — check your executive boards, final project groups, etc. before posting self-righteous comments, gang). The funding issue is way larger and more complicated than will probably be accurately described in these comments, but it should be noted that Barnard girls often comprise upwards of 1/2 of each sorority, and are hugely active and influential members. This fact will be really important as Greek life continues to lobby Barnard’s student council and other governing bodies for funding for the organizations that shaped our experiences on this campus( personally, professionally, and — gasp! shock! scorn! shun them! — socially) and, in many cases, kept us from transferring elsewhere.
@Zomg: See, right, but that’s the issue, isn’t it? The fact that while Barnard girls comprise such large percentages of the sororities, they still aren’t having to pay for it because Barnard doesn’t recognize Greek Life.
@Eliza Point well taken, but I should clarify that I was referring to the justification cited in the F@CU letter, not stating an opinion– I absolutely didnt mean to indicate that Barnard students involved in Greek Life are any less dedicated or involved than any other student in their sororities, but the fact remains that the number of fraternities overwhelms the number of sororities on campus. I’ll add F@CU’s justification into the post now and copy it here to make the point clearer.
“Following much deliberation, the committee has decided to allocate a total of $9,680.56 to the Inter-Greek Council for the 2010-2011 academic school year. This represents a 47.0% decrease from the previous year’s allocation and a 63.2% decrease from the original allocation request.
The decrease above is very significant and the committee would like to stress that this is not a reflection on the performance of the IGC. The cut is mostly due to the cut in funding from
CCSC, ESC, and GSSC proportional to the percentage of Barnard students in the IGC. Given
that Barnard students are not paying student life fees toward the IGC (as Barnard has not
recognized the IGC and does not participate in its funding), CCSC, ESC and GSSC have
decided only to fund their own constituencies and thus reduce IGC’s allocation to reflect that
decision. Please refer to SGA’s supplemental letter for more details on their intended $1000 gift to IGC which is not part of F@CU.”
@Not Barnard, not Greek but - Perhaps I’m misreading this, but it looks like the problem cited is that Barnard students ARE really involved in IGC, and aren’t paying for it. I still don’t see where the “relative lack of involvement” comes into play.
@Eliza I see how that’s confusing, adjusted wording in post. Good call!
@Anonymous unrelated: Eliza, why can’t we thumbs up or thumbs down your comments? Or articles in general?
@Eliza Our Webmaster, Hans, understands the intricacies of thumbs up/thumbs down far better than I could ever dream of, and he can give you a better sense of the whole idea.
Basically, we created the thumbs up/thumbs down specifically for comments because we were getting many, many complaints and were having bad dreams at night because of all the comment wars on here/inappropriate comments/comments that arent necessarily inappropriate but just annoying. So we completely changed our comment policy, and came up with the idea of thumbs up/down so that annoying comments no one wanted to see but arent subject for deleting could be hidden, and the commenter would know that his or her comments were not well-received. I dont think that same logic applies to our comments (i.e the comments I write all the time that say “thanks for alerting us to the existence of that typo, etc) or our actual posts. We know if you like or dont like a post because you leave us lots of comments indicating your opinion. More questions? Email eliza@bwog.net or hans@bwog.net.
@Hans That just about covers it. Until we allow/encourage/restrict registration, anonymous community moderation of comments is the compromise we’re going with.