After several consecutive years in which students were angered by what they called unfair funding practices, the Student Assembly Finance Commission has implemented a new system this fall for allocating funding to student organizations.

After several student organizations were embittered by substantial budget cuts, the Student Assembly Finance Commission is making strides to repair what many consider a broken system of student funding.

Monday night marked the first official meeting of the new Club Sports Council, which was formed after significant budget cuts last semester. The council represents 32 teams and about 900 student athletes.

The same semester it nearly halved the funding cap for student groups, the budget for the Student Assembly Finance Commission budget rose by four percent. Thirty-five percent of the SAFC’s budget was used for catered food — an expenditure prohibited by the SAFC’s requirements for the student organizations that it funds.

The Student Assembly Finance Commission reduced the fall 2011 funding cap for hundreds of student groups from $5,000 to $2,700. Seventy-one new groups applied for funding this year, leading to substantially reduced budgets for all groups as the SAFC spreads its resources thinner.

On Thursday, a group of students representing 29 club sports teams at Cornell addressed the Student Assembly and expressed its concerns about the Student Assembly Finance Commission’s announcement that funding of club sports, as well as other clubs, will be capped at $2,700 — a $2,300 reduction from last year’s cap.

Student organizations requested a total of 25 percent more funding for 2012-2014 from the Student Assembly Appropriations Committee than was allocated for 2010-2012.

After the Student Assembly granted the appeals of 27 student groups previously denied funding by the Student Assembly Finance Commission, the S.A. unanimously approved a $10,803.50 loan to the SAFC Thursday to pay the organizations.

Members of the Herpetology Club decry the SAFC's appropriations process. 

Members of Cornell Habitat for Humanity speak out against the SAFC.