Student Assembly

Organization: ALANA Date: October 15th, 2012

The Appropriations Committee felt that despite facing extraneous situations outside of their control, ALANA has done a great job in solidifying its own role as a funding board over the past year.

Committee members felt that it would be beneficial for ALANA to focus on solidifying its funding process, particularly by adding more objective funding measures that would help groups identify what expenditures would be more likely to receive funding. Committee members felt that time ALANA devoted to these and other aspects centered on its role as a funding board rather than as a programming board would most benefit the Cornell community.

In regards to specific funding policies, committee members did feel that a large amount of money was currently being spent on food expenditure items. Due to ALANA’s expertise, members of the committee recommend that ALANA enact a cap on food expenditures unless the food was deemed to be central to the organized event (such as an event whose main purpose was to provide students with the ability to taste meals from various cultures).

The committee also thought that a cap placed on how much a single event could receive, regardless of the number of participating organizations, would be beneficial to ensuring that all components of the Cornell undergraduate body were receiving adequate funding. However, the committee members felt it was best to refrain from providing an explicit recommendation on this topic and invites ALANA to explore that topic and report on the rationale behind a decision to either implement or not implement such a cap during next year’s byline funding hearing.

Finally, in order to ensure continuity from year-t0-year, committee members thought it would be very beneficial for ALANA to develop more comprehensive transition documentation so that future committees could further explore the evolution of funding decisions and allocations.

Overall, the committee felt that ALANA has done an excellent job in responding to various challenges over the past year and is moving in a positive direction.

Respectfully submitted,

Roneal Desai ‘13
Vice President for Finance
Student Assembly