As part of her campaign to reform club funding, Student Union President Jenny Feinberg '07 has formed four committees to evaluate the process by which funding is allocated to student-run organizations on campus.Each committee will focus on one aspect of club funding, Feinberg said, including an evaluation of the Finance Board, a review of secured organization expenditures, a historical review of the club funding process and a study of how students would like to see their money spent.

Nearly all student groups on campus are funded through the Student Activities Fee (SAF). The fund is paid for with tuition and currently totals over $900,000, according to Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer. Eight groups are guaranteed a set percentage of the total SAF under the current system, while the remaining 208 chartered groups apply for funding through the F-board, which is allocated approximately 38 percent of the total SAF.

The Union committee examining the F-board system will look for inefficiencies in how money is allocated to chartered clubs, Feinberg said. She also said she believes the current F-board system is sometimes problematic because it may leave certain groups at a disadvantage.

"Are religious and political groups being done an injustice?" Feinberg asked, giving an example of the questions the committee will seek to answer.

Feinberg said the committee reviewing secured funding has an especially important task, and that she believes secured organizations have been taking their funding for granted.

"As secured organizations, we've become complacent," she said. "We can buy whatever we want, [but] no one has any idea how the money is being spent."

Secured campus groups include the Union, Student Events, WBRS, BTV, the Archon, BEMCo, Waltham Group and the Justice.

"We're not concerned about losing money but about seeing a broken system get fixed," WBRS business manager Jason Levine '06 said.

Student Events, the secured organization which receives over $200,000 per year in SAF fees, more than twice as much as the next-highest funded group, says it is trying to do more to consider student opinions when deciding which types of events to fund.

"We really want to hear what students want," Director of Student Events Helen Pekker '07 said.

Pekker said Student Events is not concerned with the Student Union inquiries into its SAF funding.

"Student Events is confident in what we do," she said.

The historical review committee will conduct institutional research, including contacting alumni and consulting old issues of the Justice, to determine when and why each of the secured organizations began to receive the percentage of SAF funds that they are currently allocated, Feinberg said.

She said such research is necessary in order to avoid repeating problems that had been solved in previous debates on the subject.

A fourth committee will investigate student opinions about SAF distribution. Feinberg said Union senators have been sent door-to-door in residence buildings to gather input.

Feinberg said this review of SAF allocation is primarily about aiding the student body and ensuring that secured organizations are using funds responsibly.

"So many students have expressed concern with the services provided by the secured organizations," Feinberg said. "We're given [the students'] money to provide a service for them."

Editor's note: The Justice is a secured organization and receives 6.1 percent of the SAF annually. That funding is supplemented by advertising and subscription revenues.