When the Mock Trial team registered for regional tournaments earlier this year, the $600 it cost the team was not the members' biggest concern.
But thanks to a nuance in Student Activities Council policy, the team may end up footing the bill itself, rather than being reimbursed.
This has ignited a debate among some groups that SAC funds over whether they can get paid back for funds already spent.
While SAC has a budget of nearly $700,000 to fund almost every student club on campus, groups like the Mock Trial team have felt a budget crunch when they are forced to spend money outside of what they initially requested.
All SAC-funded groups -- which run the gamut from literary magazines to dance troupes -- have their funding allocated once each year.
SAC gets its money from the Undergraduate Assembly.
In addition to proposing a budget initially, groups can apply for contingency requests for unexpected costs.
But the SAC policy prevents groups from being compensated for funds already spent, and the Mock Trial team wants to reclaim funds that this policy denies them.
This policy exists so that clubs cannot ask for funds after they have already paid for events or materials out of pocket. That might allow club leaders to "strong-arm" the council into doling out more money, SAC Chairman Philip Gommels said.
"We go to extreme lengths to make sure that all groups have the ability to fund whatever they want, but our policy is that they have to come to us first," the College senior added.
While the Mock Trial team is one of the only groups directly affected by the policy now, other SAC-funded groups say this could happen to them.
College sophomore and Punch Bowl humor magazine Business Editor Alex King said that while he sees the reasoning behind SAC's policy, he still believes it should be modified.
"A problem arises when something comes up and you need to pay for it right away and [SAC] won't give you money," King said.
He added that contingency requests are based upon anticipated budget increases.
"They should be more flexible so a group that couldn't immediately anticipate more expenses can be compensated," King said.
As for the Mock Trial team, team President and College senior Ben Adams said that the lack of funds should not affect the group this year.
But if more than one group qualifies for the top national tournament in April, they might not be able to afford to send the whole team.
The Mock Trial team encountered problems with the SAC policy when it had to pay its annual dues to the American Mock Trial Association in the fall.
Adams said that the group had a registration discount for 2005 since it had not attended the national tournament in 2004.
SAC took this into account when allocating funds for the 2006 season, Adams said.
When the association announced this summer how much Penn's team owed, the budget was $600 short. In order to register for regional tournaments, it had to use money from its travel and conference budget -- a separate SAC-funded account.
"We did not know about the retroactive funding policy in the beginning of the year when the check was due and did not have time to file a contingency request, so we had to pay for it ourselves," Adams said.
The group finally filed a series of contingency requests to try to get the money back last week, one of which was intended to pay the difference in application fees.
SAC turned the retroactive request down, and the team paid its application fees with money for trips.
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