Tuesday, Feb. 4, 1997

Committee controls campus activity fees

By PATRICIA K. COLE
Collegian Staff Writer

While the students at the University Park campus will have to unlearn SOBC and replace it with UPAC, the students in the Commonwealth Educational System will have another set of initials to learn -- CAC.

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The Campus Allocation Committee was created by the Student Activity Fee Implementation Committee to allocate the student activity fee money. The Student Government Association Budget Committee will continue to allocate the general funds according to the Student Organization Policies and Rules.

The committee decided to keep the organizations separate because there was no risk of double funding a group or activity as there was at University Park.

"When you're at a campus with 1000 students, it's easier for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing -- it's so much easier for that to happen at the Commonwealth Campuses," said Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs J. Thomas Eakin, who chaired the committee.

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Having allocation committees will make the allocating process smoother and eliminate some of the bureaucracy in getting the funds, said Tim Daniels, president of the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments.

"A lot of people are happy because there are a lot of things happening . . . that haven't been able to happen before," Daniels said.

According to the guidelines of the activity fee, the revenue raised will remain at the campus where it was collected. Each location will have a CAC that will be responsible for allocating funds at that campus. Even campuses that were combined under the "Penn State's Campuses: A Plan for the Future" will each have its own CAC.

"There will be a person responsible for what's going on at each of the campuses," Eakin said. "The feeling was, at the campuses we had fewer students, we had to have more control because you have to have a functioning committee."

However, the overall budgets from the campuses and controversial ideas are still reviewed by the General Student Activity Fee Board, Daniels, who is a member of the board, said.

Not only will the number of committees be different, the structure will differ at the campuses. The SGA president and the director or dean of student affairs will appoint seven students, two staff and a faculty member to the committee annually.

"We didn't think we could have elections because we needed to have first year students and they can't be elected in the spring," Eakin said.

CAC will follow many of the same guidelines as University Park Allocation Committee in the allocation process. Unlike the committee at University Park, CAC can fund support services that may be not be available.

"Down the road, we hope to be able to improve the support services at the campuses," Eakin said.

The allocation of student activity fee money for support services will be one issue the board will review, Daniels said.