• A major increase in SAC funding: an extra $64,000 for student groups (or 7.77% increase from last year!).
• Restructuring Spring Fling finances: accounting changes mean that while Fling is unchanged its true cost is now reported and accounted for; plus, the recommendation includes a little bit extra for Concert talent.
• A major increase in Connaissance Major Speaker Honoraria funding (from $61,000 per semester to $75,000 per semester).
• Restoration of the SPEC Film Speaker Event with $13,000 of funding.
• Some program eliminations:
  • Dolphin email accounts ($4950)
  • SPEC Concerts Small Show Series ($3000)
  • SPEC Connaissance Philomathean Society Annual Oration Co-Sponsorship ($3000)
  • Minority Scholars Weekend ($2250)
  • SPEC Special Events Third Spring Fest ($2000)
  • SPEC Connaissance Haitian Solidarity Week Co-Sponsorship ($1000)
  • Haitian Solidarity Week Co-Sponsorship ($1000)
  • Holocaust Memorial Day Co-Sponsorship ($1000)
  • GUIDE Co-Sponsorship ($1000)
• Standardization of SPEC Jazz and Grooves and SPEC-TRUM Spring Concert with Fall Concerts, involving cutting:
  • $10,550 from SPEC Jazz and Grooves Spring Concert
  • $7,950 from SPEC-TRUM Spring Concert

The final budget is available in a printable version (for legal-size paper!) or an online Google Docs version.

See below the jump for an itemized list of approved amendments. And tell us what you think in the comments!

The ten approved amendments (i.e. changes from the budget recommendation) were:

1. All funding for Ivy Council ($4163) was revoked.
2. The SCUE Research Symposium was granted full funding (total $1950)
3. SCUE Internet, banner hanging, and print toner costs were funded at a total of $272
4. NEC Spring Candidate Packets were cut by $100 and increase NEC student government information fliers were increased by $100
5. NEC Midnight Breakfast food and beverage allocations were increased by $300 (from $2200 to $2500) to reflect the loss of a lucrative catering contract.
6. SPEC Connaissance Spring Non-Annual Co-Sponsorships were increased by $3000 to $15,500
7. MLK Day, Kwanzaa, Cari-Fest, Kappa Scholarship Ball, and La Unidad Latina line items were revoked and placed in SPEC-TRUM Non-Annual Co-Sponsorship, which was thereby increased from $6,000 to $17,300
8. MSA Islam Awareness Week Connaissance Line-Item was increased to $2500 from $2000.
9. The UA Dolphin Server charges were restored to pay for web accounts (but not email), increasing the Dolphin Line-Item to $500 from $0.
10. The Sophomore Class Board was granted an additional $1000, to $13500, to promote a larger and ever-better Sophomore Skimmer.

RecycleMania is a 10-week competition between over 400 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Campuses compete in different contests to see which institution can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, and achieve the highest recycling rate.

The 2010 RecycleMania Tournament will run from January 17 to March 28, with Penn competing in a division against its “Ivy Plus” peers at Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. Scroll down to see results from last year’s competition and learn more about what you can do to help Penn increase its recycling rate and reduce its waste in the 2010 tournament.

The UA has partnered with the Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women to publicize and promote the Women’s Undergraduate Resource Guide (WURG) to the Penn Community.

Generously funded by the Trustee’s Council of Penn Women, the WURG is a comprehensive guide that contains valuable information on physical and mental health, personal safety, as well as the various resources available to women at Penn.  The WURG also contains a section that introduces the Penn Women’s Center as well as the constituent members of the Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women.  Colorful and easy to read, it provides undergraduate students, especially incoming students, the necessary information to successfully navigate the journey that is Penn.

Download this excellent guide today!

The Philadelphia community is warmly invited to this year’s 9-11 Ramadan Banquet. Please join us for an evening of remembrance as we celebrate an organization that has truly improved our country since 9-11. The event is on Friday September 11th at 6pm in Hall of Flags. Dinner will be served to all who attend.

Details below the jump:

In honor of the fact that 9-11 falls during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the Muslim Students Association is hosting this landmark banquet in collaboration with College Republicans, Penn Dems, Hillel, PRISM, UA, UMC, APSC, PCUW, SAS and many other diverse organizations across campus.

It is no easy task to grow and improve ourselves without forgetting the past, but in the eight years since the world-changing calamity our country has done exactly that. The months immediately following the tragedy were not easy– the victims and the victimized had to persevere in the face of many uncertain tomorrows. Those tomorrows became a little less uncertain through the good will of many federal, local and non-governmental initiatives that have drastically changed communities.

This year, we will honor one such organization that has actively helped America come out stronger from the events of 9-11. The Twin Towers Orphan fund provides long-term assistance to the children of 9-11 victims in the form of educational savings accounts as well as mental and physical healthcare. In doing so, the fund is able to give these young children the chance to lead normal lives. All funds raised at the banquet will go towards this worthwhile cause.

The collaboration of organizations involved in this initiative are working to make this Ramadan Banquet a very special event for the Philadelphia community. In celebration of the fact that 9-11 falls during the Islamic month of Ramadan, we would all like to give our wonderful community an opportunity to sit down with one another, break fast, and enjoy dinner in honor of how far we have come in the years since the horrible atrocity and its aftermath.

Muslims are required to fast during the daylight hours of the holy month of Ramadan, which overlaps with Fall semester. This means that Muslims at Penn with dining plans are at a disadvantage; dining halls aren’t open before sunrise.

That’s why the UA, led by UA Representative (now Treasurer) Sakina Zaidi, secured free breakfasts for observant Muslims during Ramadan after unanimously passing a resolution to give Muslims “Fast Food” for Ramadan. The meals will be handed out during the evening meal of Iftar, and are funded by the Office of the Chaplain and Penn Dining Services.

In addition, the MSA has announced its intention to have a memorial banquet on 9/11, to which President Gutmann and student leaders will be invited, as a direct result of this project!

The architectural rending of Du Bois College House by MGA Partners, showing some of the major renovations announced for the four-story building including the large new “picture window” in the Multipurpose Room on the first floor. From the Penn Almanac.

After years of pressure from students, faculty and administrators alike, DuBois College House is undergoing a major renovation!

Student room improvements will include fresh paint and new furniture. Bathroom fixtures and finishes will be renovated or replaced. New lighting, floor tiles, exhaust fans and in-room electrical panels and radiator covers will be installed. Numerous exterior and public space improvements are planned. The building’s exterior will be washed, bricks re-pointed and masonry restored. New windows will be installed with brighter glass, casements, screens and mini-blinds. Additional improvements are planned for the multi-purpose room, first floor common kitchen, first floor computer lab, house office, lounges and public restrooms.

The full announcement was made in the Almanac and the DP. The renovation has already begun and will hopefully be finished by the beginning of Fall 2009.

This major renovation did not come about overnight – rather, it has been the product of persistent lobbying by UMOJA, the UMC, other minority coalitions, individual residents of DuBois, and the UA, which passed a resolution supporting DuBois renovations in 2006(!). Invaluable support also came from key administrators, most notably Vice-Provost Val Cade and Associate Vice-Provost Will Gipson, who is also the Faculty Master of DuBois.

The UA passed a resolution on reservations, accepted by the Vice-Provost of University Life, which:

• Mandated the Student Government Info Session be given priority access to the Cohen Auditorium,
• Insisted that Perelman Quad not “upgrade” room reservations without prior notice and consent of groups booking rooms. Once a room is assigned, barring priority-order conflicts, that room should not be reassigned.
• In the case of reassignments, the UA asked VPUL Facilities to not reassign any room assigned to a student group without notifying the affected groups at least sixteen (16) calendar days in advance of the booking.
• Ensured that notice of early bookings for the next academic year (usually made available in March) be communicated to the UA and to SAC and distributed widely to the undergraduate population.

These policies are slated to go into effect in Fall 2009.

The short move-out time was first protested against on Facebook; the UA responded and issued a 700-person survey, which paved the way for a resolution on Move-Out in the Fall Semester of this year. After that, and extensive discussions with Housing Services, the move-out deadline was eventually moved to 5pm on the day after exams.

In addition, we will survey all undergraduate residents of the College Houses and Sansom Place on this year’s move-out process to measure the effectiveness of the change and field suggestions for further improvement. However, looking at anecdotal evidence, it appears as if the change has worked very well for all involved!

Any students with questions on the policy change or other elements of Move-Out should email moveout@exchange.upenn.edu.

Allocation to different branches in the 09-10 Budget

Every year the UA is given around $1.8 million to allocate to the branches of student government for the upcoming year – money that funds Spring Fling, major speakers, Hey Day, Sophomore Skimmer, free New York Times, and, of course, every student group on campus. Our money comes from the Trustees, and is pegged to the General Fee.

This year, of course, the economy ran into a little trouble, but the General Fee went up by 3.9% and so the UA was given an extra $67,000 to distribute. This was important; with budget cutting in every department, students can’t rely on non-student funding sources any more. Plus, the UA Budget Committee and PSG Treasurers found nearly $50,000 in savings from careful cutting of unnecessary and less popular programs.

In the end, our increase and new savings meant that:

• SAC gets another $25,000 boost to student group funding.
• SPEC got more than $28,000 extra for a better Spring Fling concert, SPEC-TRUM concert, and Fall/Spring Major Speakers.
• The UA began funding PennArts and PennGreen, two new and exciting freshman pre-orientation programs.

The full budget is online or in a printer friendly version, as you prefer. For the full low-down on the budget, check after the jump.

The new budget provides for some exciting new programs:

• For the first time PennArts and PennGreen will have institutional funding, ensuring their long-term survival. This is part of the UA’s commitment to the Pre-Orientation program in general: we partly fund every pre-orientation program that Penn offers.
• SCUE, the academic policy branch of the PSG, can launch the next of its acclaimed and influential White Papers thanks to a boost of $6,000.
• The Wine Tasting Preceptorial is back to full funding, thanks to cuts and economies made by the organizers.
• The UA-New York Times Readership Program will be fully funded this year.
• SPEC can launch a new Spring Crafts Fair, following on the success of their Fall fair.
• SPEC-TRUM now has access to a $6,000 discretionary co-sponsorship fund for minority groups with new speaker events in need of funding.
• La Unidad Latina and the Kappa Scholarship Ball are now both funded by SPEC-TRUM for the first time.

Plus, the most successful and popular SPEC events got a funding boost:

• $45,000 extra for the Spring Fling Concert, securing even better talent for next year and keeping the concert in the high-capacity Franklin Field.
• $7,500 extra for Spring Fling itself, to improve the Carnival and general Fling security.
• $8,000 more for SPEC Connaissance major speakers, allowing us to keep high-profile speakers like Madeline Albright and Anderson Cooper coming to campus!
• $6,000 extra for SPEC-TRUM Concert production and talent, ensuring the SPEC-TRUM Concerts will continue to build on their impressive reputation.

Most importantly for many of you, SAC’s budget has increased for the tenth consecutive year, with an extra $25,573 for student groups.

Finally, the Budget Committee was able to find just over $47,000 in savings to pay for these significant budget boosters (unlike another government, we actually balance our budget!). Many of these savings were hard to make, but all were essential to ensure a healthy budget going into the uncertain future:

• $15,000 was saved by cutting the Film Society Speaker event.
• $10,000 was saved by reducing talent costs for both the Fall and Spring Jazz + Grooves shows.
• $5550 was saved by reducing usage of the Dolphin Server (web space for student groups).
• $5200 was saved by cutting SPEC “Philly Week”.
• $3085 was saved by ruthlessly cutting advertising and food costs across all student government budgets.
• $2665 was saved by eliminating the SPEC Special Events Oscars Party.
• $1700 was saved by the NEC reducing their ad purchase for elections.
• $1,525 was saved by reducing hospitality costs in the Spring Fling concert.
• $1,500 was saved by halving the number small shows produced by SPEC Concerts.
• $780 was saved by scaling down SCUE Education Week.

The Budget is prepared by a lengthy process, which involves the UA Budget Committee (consisting of the Treasurer and two upperclassmen UA members elected at the beginning of the year) consulting with all PSG branch Treasurers, then preparing a recommendation that is considered, amended, and ultimately approved by the UA General Body of representatives at the meeting immediately before Spring Break. This year, the Budget Committee’s recommendation was affirmed by the General Body without amendment. For more questions on the budget, contact the Budget Committee at budget@pennua.org.

Do comment below about the final result. Did we cut something we shouldn’t have? Or fund something useless? Let us know! It’s your money – how we spend it is in your hands!