Student groups to be held accountable for future debt

Roughly forty student groups were relieved of their debt Wednesday night.

The Student Activities Council, which funds over 200 student groups, attempted to start afresh by dropping previously accrued debt, lifting the freeze on funding for new student groups that had been in place since January and introducing a new penalty-based debt policy.

These policies aim to prevent events like last spring when SAC’s reserve fund, which it uses to cover groups’ overspending, dropped to $103,837 — about half the amount it had been the year before.

“It’s good to have a clean slate, especially since we’re not sure where [our debt] came from,” College senior and Penn Parliamentary Debate President Eric Rubin said.

Even though Parliamentary Debate did not accrue any more debt by the end of last semester, it still had “a lot of historic debt” that it had accumulated over the years, Rubin said. He added that the group’s functioning would be “much the same” as before its debt was cancelled.

SAC’s former debt policy did not penalize groups for overspending. As a result, debt that was accumulated each year was passed on to future members.

“During my term, we certainly took from the reserve fund,” said 2011 College graduate Ali Huberlie, who served as SAC chairwoman in 2009-10, in a Daily Pennsylvanian article last January. “I was aware that there was a problem, but my board was turning over. I knew it was a conversation we’d be having” with the Office of Student Affairs, that helps to manage SAC’s funds.

College senior and current SAC Chairman Vinay Rao said the debt problem was something that SAC had been working “tirelessly” to overcome since his freshman year. “The whole issue has been figuring out a plan,” he added.

Rao believes that he has succeeded in creating a policy that future SAC boards can “mold” as needed.

The new policy features budget cuts that will be based on how much groups overspend every semester. SAC hopes this measure will keep its reserve fund at a healthy level, Rao added.

Additionally, newly elected treasurers from each SAC-funded group must now attend a mandatory training session on SAC’s policy.

While SAC has changed its current policies, Rao still encourages students to use other sources of funding whenever possible.

“I think SAC is definitely the first stop [for funding],” he said. “At the same time, when it doesn’t fall into our guidelines, its good to look at other groups.”

Alternative sources of funding for student groups include Tangible Change, with $40,000 for community-based events, the Social Planning and Events Committee, which has a $73,000 funding limit and the Intercultural Fund.

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