Because of problems with funds the University Park Allocations Committee has encountered in recent months, four undergraduate students decided to take some action to provide a succor for the barrage of controversies that have followed the organization.

Jeffrey Budney (senior-electrical engineering), Jason Covener (senior-international politics), Robert Michaels (junior-political science) and Rick Smith(junior-kinesiology) drafted and submitted a proposal to reform some of the operations of UPAC at the policy meeting Tuesday night.

The four students said they felt that a change is necessary and the need is proven because of high student interest after UPAC funds dried up in February.

Budney said they met with the outgoing UPAC Chairman Eddie Elizondo last week to discuss ideas.

"This is something I've been talking about since last semester," Budney said.

Budney and the other student organizers chose two issues they believe to be important and made recommendations to fix these problems.

"There's so many things you can think about changing in UPAC," he said.

They said UPAC needs to be more democratically elected and there should be no limits placed on the amount of funds allocated to speakers.

Budney said students should be able to democratically elect the members of all the sub-committees within UPAC, which are the Operational Allocation Team (OAT) and the Programming Allocation Team (PAT).

Budney said when a student group applies for funding from UPAC for a speaker, they are limited to a $5,000 cap.

He also said he doesn't like how the Distinguished Speakers Series speakers are chosen.

Budney, who is chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, said YAF has had many speakers brought in, but the current UPAC policy only allots $5,000 for an individual speaker for an individual student group.

He said this inhibits his organization as well as others from getting more well-known speakers or performers.

Budney said other student groups could obtain more funding by hosting many speakers or performers at one event because each speaker would be allotted $5,000.

Elizondo said the committee reviewed the two propositions submitted and didn't fully accept the propositions.

"I'd have to say I was disappointed — but I wasn't surprised," Budney said.

Elizondo said they thoroughly discussed the proposal.

"We took it all into consideration, but there were some concerns over the legal aspect of a totally elected UPAC," he said.

The speakers' cap will remain the same at $5,000, but Elizondo said UPAC could consider raising the amount allocated with the circumstances of a student group. The amount could be raised one time during the allocation period.

"I thought it was good about raising the speakers' cap," Budney said.

Elizondo said UPAC wanted to wait a little for more guidance from the University of Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin has a similar set-up for its allocation of funds and the way elected students are involved with those funds.

"Concerning the elected students, they will be evenly divided among all committees," Elizondo said.

He said they already do that, but now it will be formal.

Concerning electing 16 students for UPAC positions, Budney said, "It's the only just and fair thing to do."

When asked if YAF was involved in the writing up of the proposal, Budney said, "We're keeping it a student thing."

He said YAF talked about a UPAC proposal, but he and the other organizers of the proposal wanted to involve all students.

Budney said he began to think about writing the reform proposal after attending the information session hosted by UPAC.

"Certainly, this isn't the end of our attempts to fix it (UPAC)," he said.