Details surrounding the emergency funding allotted to Hillel by Student Union Senate two weeks ago have raised numerous issues regarding the integrity of the request and the allocation system. The request, which was presented and agreed upon in a senate hearing on Sept. 1, was an attempt by Hillel to defray the cost of one of its opening week events - a highly attended lecture from Judge Danny Butler. According to Senate, Hillel requested $1,000, an amount club president Rachel Silverman '04 said was Judge Butler's speaking fee. Though recent evidence suggests that Hillel had sufficient funds to cover the cost, Senate is debating whether they were misled to believe the club did not have an alternate source of funding.

Executive Senator Erica Lemansky said, "(Senate) made the request and emergency because Hillel stated that they didn't know how they would have the event without the money. We were under the assumption that the event wouldn't have taken place without the money."

Reuben Posner, the Hillel board member who presented the money request during the Sept. 1 Senate meeting, said Hillel's budget made it impossible to gauge the amount of money the organization could spend.

Posner refused to comment.

Adam Herman, a member of the Executive Board who was present at the meeting, recalled Posner saying, "we could either receive $14,000 or we could receive nothing."

On Sunday, Sept. 14, the emergency check was waiting, still uncollected, at the Student Union Office.

"It seems they didn't need the money," said Herman.

Silverman said, "(the situation was a) miscommunication that is being taken care of."

Silverman also noted that Judge Butler has not yet been paid. When asked if the check from Student Senate would be used to pay Butler, she said, "yes."

Silverman said Hillel also supplied $300 for the event. The rest was supplied by the Senate and Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences for Undergraduate Education Elaine Wong.

"Over the summer, after the Senate stopped meeting [last year], Hillel decided that we wanted to sponsor three nights of programming," Silverman said. "We gave each of the nights a budget (between) $250 and $300. It quickly became clear that in order to accomplish the goals of the Religious Life event, we would have to spend more than $300."

Student Senator Gabe Reif said, "No club ever needs the money from one particular source. If we had denied all funding to Hillel, they could have sought out other on-campus resources and they still could have held the event.

"I think all of the senators know that if he had to Reuben could have gone to Hillel for the necessary money, but we understand that he wants to make this case seem as urgent as possible and he wants to spread his source of funds as much as possible. He did this incredibly well.