As the director of this semester's Movin' On festival, Jeniece Fairbairn was basically responsible for every aspect of the event, from selection of bands, all the way down to what kind of salsa was provided for them backstage.

Not surprisingly, with an event of this size, Fairbairn said the organization of Movin' On 2004 had met with a few unexpected twists.

For one, a lineup change announced as late as last Wednesday night resulted in ska band Suburban Legends replacing jam band Liquid Lobster.

And getting down to brass tax, Fairbairn described the process of securing funding from the University Park Allocations Committee (UPAC) as an uphill battle. She said UPAC made her redraft her proposal for funds several times before it was finally approved. And she said this delay was costly.

It was just five weeks ago when Movin' On totaled its UPAC funding at $52,938.23 -- in contrast to about $69,000 the event received last year. Fairbairn said it was these constraints on time and money that accounted, in part, for the Movin' On committee's decisions regarding artist selection.

But UPAC chair Nicole Sandretto said that Fairbairn submitted her initial budget about two months later than most prior Movin' On chairs. She said that application was incomplete. Subsequent appeals to UPAC's eventual award lengthened the process further.

"There's really nothing we can do about that," Sandretto said, adding that if a group wants a decision early, it should submit its request early.

Fairbairn also said Sponge was initially onboard to play the festival for free. A misunderstanding, which Fairbairn called "one huge mess up," resulted in the band claiming a $2,000 chunk of the budget.

"We're kind of at the point where we'll take what we can get," she said.

The band could not be reached for comment.

"Who decided on Sponge is what I want to know," Alan Hanczyc (senior-biology) said.

Hanczyc is a member of Eco-Action, the Penn State club that sponsored the Earth Day festival this past Sunday. The group tried unsuccessfully to get UPAC funding to bring in guitarist Keller Williams for the event.

Hanczyc said he was disappointed with UPAC, and felt the group chose to give Movin' On a higher priority in terms of funding.

Sandretto said it's not her organization's job to judge whether a monetary request is reasonable, per se. She explained that UPAC considers the intent of a program when deciding how much funding to award, but has no say in how that money is actually used.

In the case of Earth Day versus Movin' On, she said the former is more about educating and informing people, while the latter should be more focused on the music.

Sandretto said the question the committee asks itself when making a decision is: "How will this experience, if funded, enhance students' lives?"

And, of course, UPAC tries to make sure the group receiving funding is being responsible with students' money -- something Sandretto said has been an issue in the past. To prevent problems of this nature, the university developed a policy this year requiring all student organizations' business with bands be conducted by an internal adviser.

Jerad Sorber, program coordinator for Late Night Penn State, has taken on this responsibility. He estimated to have already saved student groups more than $10,000 this year by cutting out the middleman.

As far as the situation this year, Sorber indicated that no amount of finger pointing is likely to provide an answer.

"I'm sure if you ask Movin' On they'll say it was UPAC," he said, "and if you ask UPAC they'll say it was Movin' On."