The Arts Undergraduate Improvement Fund Committee held its annual meeting last Tuesday to allocate McGill's largest opt-outable fee.
AUS VP Finance Elizabeth Mirhady explained that the committee tends to give money to groups where changes can be seen.
"I think the reason we had a very low opt-out rate is because this is a fund that has a very real impact on students, and students can see it."
The committee, consisting of the Arts Undergraduate Society President, Vice-President Finance, and VP Communications, along with 12 departmental representatives, five department chairs, the Dean and the Associate Director of the Social Sciences Library, were responsible for divvying up close to $271,000. At $24.50 per person per semester, the fee saw relatively small opt-out rates since the new system was implemented last year.
Constitutional by-laws regarding the fee state that 40 per cent of its fee must go to computer labs, four per cent to the Fine Arts Council and three per cent to the internship office. This leaves $140,000 remaining for groups that apply for funding.
These excess funds were divided amongst 15 groups including german studies, hispanic studies and Tuesday Night Café Theatre to name a few. Most of the applications were for lounge furniture with a few notable exceptions. The department of East Asian Studies' received $837.71 to buy Korean action films. while AUS themselves received $3380.10 for walkie-talkies, a vacuum and a colour printer.
Mirhady stated that applications are rigorously looked over and that resources are allocated based on a set of stiff criteria.
"Their benefit to students, their financial viability and how much thought and effort that had been put into the application."
The fund was set up over 10 years ago to create the Arts Lounge in the basement of Leacock. Since then, the fee has been instrumental in setting up the computer labs in Ferrier, couches throughout the arts buildings a nd numerous other capital needs.
2008 Woodie Awards
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