Brandeis Television (BTV), seeking to become a Secured Allocations Fund (SAF) club, has proposed an amendment to the Student Union Charter, in which it would receive all of the now-defunct Watch's current funding. This currently represents 1.87 percent of the total SAF budget. It is a revised version of an earlier amendment that called for all of the Watch's funding, in addition to 11 percent of Archon's current SAF funds.SAF Organizations are guaranteed annual funding without having to participate in the Allocations Board marathon funding process each semester.

The amendment had sparked fierce debate over the necessity of BTV attaining SAF funds. BTV supporters said Archon had not fully looked into other sources of funding, and that they could survive such a cut without an excessive increase in yearbook prices. Yearbooks are currently free to seniors and $65 to underclassmen. Students involved in Archon, however, disagreed, and said BTV was underestimating the damage a cut in funding could do to the yearbook.

Were such a cut to have taken place, Archon would have been "forced to make dramatic structural changes to the 2003 yearbook, largely being [sic] the Senior Section," representatives said in a statement given at Monday's Senate meeting.

"This is important because the most cherished portion of the yearbook for seniors is seeing their portraits and their majors listed. Last year, in the senior portrait section, there (were) 16 portraits per page with their full names and listing of majors, minors, and programs. With the proposed $7000 budget cut, we would have to decrease the size of the pictures significantly and go down to 30 senior portraits per page with no majors or programs."

The Archon representatives emphasized in the statement that they were not opposed to BTV getting SAF funding.

BTV representatives insisted at the time that they had looked at other possibilities and that was the most feasible, reasonable one. By the end of Sunday night's meeting, however, they had proposed the revised amendment and received the 10 necessary Senate signatures. Alternatively, a group seeking a Constitutional amendment can get 485 student signatures.

"We wanted to be absolutely sure that we could get this amendment passed," said Avi Kaufman '03, president of BTV. "We're confident it would have passed no matter what, but we wanted to do it in a way that wouldn't hurt anyone too much."

The vote on the BTV amendment cannot occur until next Tuesday, since eight days need to pass between an amendment's proposal to the senate and a vote on it.

A two-thirds majority in the Union Senate is required for the ratification of a constitutional amendment.

Oren Barouch '03, director of BEMCo, another SAF group, said he generally favored BTV receiving SAF funding.

"I do believe that a campus television station deserves secured funding in some way, shape or form," he said. "From the minimal discussions I have had with BTV representatives it seems they have a lot of fixed costs -- in other words, lots of one-time costs."

Barouch said he was concerned, however, that BTV's general operating costs are not actually as high as they have said in their proposal.

"BEMCo, for example, spends almost 90 percent of our budget on our general operations, or our variable day to day costs. Our fixed costs such as upgrading equipment is generally a small portion or our expenditures," Barouch said.

Barouch added, however, that BTV is doing a good job of looking ahead. "BTV has admitted that as part of its proposal it would like to take a smaller amount than it sees fit, see how things are for a few years, and then ask for more," he said. "That is a good idea and I would still like to see a five year plan saying where there funding is going, what it is getting spent on and how BTV will grow and sustain itself as a club. Getting that on paper can only help them in their quest for funding."

Corey Kritzman '03, head of the Waltham Group, which is also a SAF group, said he fully supports BTV's SAF bid. "All other forms of media at Brandeis currently receive SAF funding and it seems only appropriate that BTV receive funding from the same source," he said. "The mere fact that every student 'participates' in BTV makes it worthy of receiving part of our student activity fee. If BTV received more money, they would be able to better serve students."

Because the Watch has not been published in over a year, has given up its funding without much of a fight. It has since joined the Brandeis Media Coalition instead, in order to meet future printing needs.