Provost funds music department

In a written agreement with the music department, SGA stated that it would discontinue its funding of the department for fiscal year 2005-2006.

The agreement said that the department "has agreed that it will no longer need to request an operating budget from SGA."

The department will now be receiving university funding from the Office of the Provost instead. The agreement also states that Institute funding from the Provost will be a "long-term" arrangement.

Graduate Senator Pelham Norville said that SGA's move was driven by the fact that the music department is an academic department, and SGA does not fund academic units.

"When it began to ask for funding, the department was non-academic," he said. "It was classified as a Tier II organization consisting of a number of clubs and organizations."

Since the department is now categorized as academic, it does not fit the criteria for a Tier II organization, Norville said.

The department offers a Music Minor and a Certificate in Fine Arts, and is currently developing a curriculum for a major.

Although SGA supports the expansion of the music department, it does so given that "those degree offerings do not require funding from the SAF [Student Activity Fee] budget," as is written in the agreement with the department.

"We are paying for instruments, sheet music, concerts and supplies for courses," Norville said. "Students are getting course credit and paying tuition-[tuition] is the money that should be going towards funding the department."

Furthermore, according to the agreement, SGA will not fund "any events associated with the music department courses."

David Andersen, undergraduate chair of the Joint Finance Committee, said, "This is a win-win situation for the music department and SGA. The music department will be receiving more money from the Provost than it was receiving from SGA."

Norville said that the Student Activity Fee-the main source of SGA organizational funding-fluctuates, whereas university funding would be more stable.

SGA asserted in the agreement that Institute funding would benefit the music department more than "the smaller and more-limited Student Activity Fee budget, and the music department has agreed."

According to Andersen, the decision will benefit student-led organizations. The elimination of the music department from the budget, Andersen said, frees up about $50,000 that SGA can allocate to other non-academic groups that are in need of funds.

Last year, when SGA had agreed to pay half of the total funding for the department, many student organizations within it did not receive as much money as they had requested, Norville said.

Because of the change in the new budget structure, he continued, organizations are more likely to get the funding they need.

"It should have been changed before," he said. "In the past we had to cut part of the budgets from the clubs. Now, we will be able to provide more funding for these student organizations rather than for academic courses."

Chorale President Tony Le, whose organization only received about half of its requested funds from SGA last year, expressed confidence in the decision.

"I understand the difficulties in the budget last year," he said, "and I am glad that SGA has taken great steps towards doing what they can monetarily."

The clubs in the music department could either request funds as Tier III organizations, or submit bills to SGA asking for money, Norville said.

"They [the clubs] can now ask for and receive money for club expenditures, such as trips, formals, and speakers," he said. "This can be done either by requesting funds as Tier III organizations, or by submitting bills asking for money."

These requests, as the agreement stated, would be reviewed as long as "student government is not funding-directly or indirectly-the music department itself," Norville said.

Amy Phuong, undergraduate student body president, said that the change is beneficial.

"We were initially perceived as not wanting to help the music department, but this is not true," she said.

"We have made the distinction between academic departments and student organizations with the intention of helping both the music department as well as student organizations."

The Technique contacted Dr. Frank Clark, director of the music department, but he declined to comment.

Provost Jean-Lou Chameau was unavailable for comment prior to printing.