University of Virginia Library

'Service To The Students'

"Therefore the fund
provides not only a means for
students to participate in
extracurricular activities," he
continued, "but also a service to
the students."

Allocations of the fund are
determined, or refused, by the
Organizations and Publications
Committee of the Student
Council, which Mr. Sabato
chairs.

Of the $182 comprehensive
fee paid annually by every
student only $12 of that sum is
allocated to the Student
Activities Fee. With that $12
per student, or $150,000 total,
the Student Council allocates
funds to over 90 student
organizations.

The largest proportion of
that total, 39 per cent, goes to
the Publications and Radio
Category, which includes
WTJU, WUVA, The Cavalier
Daily and the Virginia Law
Review, among others.

Community service groups
receive the next highest
percentage (21.4 per cent),
with club sports, academic and
speaker organizations, as well
as interest-oriented equal
opportunity and musical
groups receiving the rest of the
funds. These are the eight
categories, each with a specific
fund celling, through which
Student Council determines
allocation distribution.

Despite recent criticism,
Mr. Sabato claims, "This is the
best fee we pay, for we get
more from it than any other."
The fact is, without that fee
(and there are factions in the
University who seek to abolish
it) extra-curricular activities
would virtually disappear.

In an attempt to inject the
two-week herculean task of
determining "what
organizations get how much"
with a bit more efficiency, Mr.
Sabato has recently conducted
a mild purge of the procedure.
Student Council has altered the
procedure of and affixed a
specific time limit to the fund
hearings at which each
organization requests
appropriations.