The Senate voted in favor of bylaw changes to Allocations Board marathon funding sessions during the weekly Senate meeting on Sunday. The changes will go into effect next November and will “consolidate the number of funding marathons held each year to one per semester, determining the club funding for the entire next semester,” according to a Mar. 1 Justice article.

Student Union Vice President David Herbstritt ’17 explained at a press conference last Tuesday that one of the goals of the change was to avoid having clubs’ funding requests rejected due to improperly filled out forms on the Student Union Management System website. “Next year, in November of 2016, we would also be changing the marathon schedule such that there [would be] two full-semester marathons a year to fund the next semester,” he said. “So in November, you would fund spring [semester,] and then in late March [or] early April, you would fund the following fall [semester]. … This also eliminates the uncertainties involved in funding, for clubs, for A-board, and the all-around chaos that comes with the current marathon [system].”

“We’re trying to not only spread the time out but also move the time when people have to do the work to get their funding from the time when they actually have their funding periods,” Herbstritt continued.

The amendment calls for A-Board to hold drop-in hours to discuss the necessary requirements, according to the Mar. 1 Justice article. The new system will require clubs to fill out a “supplementary form … about each event they want to host, in addition to the [SUMS system] that every club must use to request funding,” according to the article.

Herbstritt explained at the press conference that the drop-in sessions were designed for A-board members and club leaders to go over forms related to funding but that they would not be as “structured” as previous meetings. “What we are hoping is that with the additional A-board office hours we are putting up is that [clubs] will feel comfortable and excited to use those,” he said.

Additionally, he mentioned at the press conference that at the current moment, the Student Union had no plans to switch from the SUMS system, but he acknowledged that the system will eventually need to be updated or changed. He also noted that the Union would need a “really solid plan” to move on from SUMS because of the technical difficulties that would arise because of a shift.

—Avi Gold, with Max Moran contributing reporting.