By Michele Richinick

Budget Review Committee (BRC) chair Jennifer Hardy announced at a committee meeting last night that the BRC will form a group to evaluate how the year has gone so far, said Garrett Marques, a member of the BRC.

“We’re looking to service as much of the student population as possible while still trying to work with the new budget constraints,” Marques said.

The BRC, which operates under the Student Government Association (SGA), allocates the Student Activity Fee (SAF). Student groups request funding from the BRC for campus events, which include speakers, comedians, concerts, cultural events and theatrical performances, according to the BRC’s website.

With the growth in the number of student groups and the requests for more, larger programs, the SAF can no longer meet the demand of all the funding, said SGA President Rob Ranley.

The SAF is currently $109 per student as part of tuition each year.

“There has been a steady increase in programming throughout the past years,” Hardy said. “We have more demand than supply. [The student activity funding] cannot fully fund every program.”

Hardy worked with the Student Activities Business Office to create a budget for the year, Ranley said, which is different from past years.

“This year’s [management] is different than we’ve ever had it managed because groups want large events,” Ranley said.

The BRC has more than $2 million to allocate for programming for the entire year, Ranley said. As of last week, more than $500,000 had been allocated to programs, including events that will be put on next semester, he said.

“We take requests up to six weeks in advance and longer than that, too,” Marques said. “The entire year we do get a lot of requests and we do only have that limited amount. We are trying to have as many programs as possible while still sticking to that budget.”

Chae Reid, a member of the BRC, said oversight is a problem for the committee. She said there are issues the BRC has no control over.

“I think we have come to some good decisions and I think we have made some mistakes,” Reid said. “We don’t look to see all that we can do. We just take it as they come. Sometimes we might spend too much money on one program, then other programs we have to cut here and there.”

According to a BRC document, the committee had allocated funds to 50 programs as of yesterday. At that time, seven student groups were denied total funding for their events. The groups were the Northeastern University Huskiers and Outing Club (NUHOC), the Interfraternity Council (IFC), the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the Northeastern University Undergraduate South Asian Students Organization (UTSAV), NUSTAND, the Sigma Delta Tau Sorority and Music and Entertainment Industry Student Organization (MEISA), according to the document.

“The budget is necessary,” Hardy said. “We’re trying to stick to that budget so not all of the funding goes to October and November. It is necessary for us to budget it so we aren’t out of funds in March and April. It gives the opportunity to those groups who want to program in the spring.”

Megan Vick, treasurer of MEISA, said the group presented two events to the BRC this academic year.

“They were so low on money that they couldn’t give us both events because there wasn’t enough money in November,” Vick said. “They are so overstretched for funding, you have to do it event by event. For us, the event by event thing doesn’t work out.”

Vick said MEISA can find alternate ways to fund programs since the group received less funding, but she said she wishes the BRC format for funding was different.

“We’re a well known group on campus and we have delivered shows that have been well populated and well liked,” Vick said. “It’s a little frustrating.”

Erik Grosfeld, coordinator for MEISA Live, said the group’s general reaction was that they were surprised about the changes in the budget this year and that the change wasn’t more prominently stated.

The budget is based on percentages the BRC spent last year, Hardy said. If the BRC spent 14 percent in September last year, they spent 14 percent this year, she said.

“The reason that we are budgeting is so that we don’t run out,” Hardy said. “We don’t want to reach zero before the end of the year.”