The following guide is a partial listing of student groups that submitted budgets to the ASSU to be placed on the ballot. The dollar amounts listed underneath each organization’s name are first the amount the group requested and second the amount the ASSU Appropriations Committee recommended for the group. Information about the actual amount of money groups are balloted for was not available when we went to press.

Stanford Club Sports $267,489.15 / $182,269.15
Club sports include: Badminton, Cricket, Cycling, Equestrian, Horse Polo, Ice Hockey, Judo, Lacrosse, Rugby, Running, Skiing, Squash, Table Tennis, Tae Kwon Do, Triathlon, Ultimate, Archery. Stanford Club Sports submitted a budget for $781,540.07, requesting a modest $267,489.15 with ASSU recommending only $182,269.15. Cricket requested $1000 for sawdust and other incidentals such as paint. Cycling seems to value coaching, with a road coach and a race day coach raking in $2920 not to mention an “old coach” salary of $62684.24. However, all this coaching may not prevent disaster, as the cycling team is also spending $250 on an ambulance rental. Squash seems to have some expensive balls, planning on spending over $1000 dollars for them; Ultimate, on the other hand, has even more expensive Frisbees, budgeting $3025 on team dics, and another $450 on practice discs – and this is just the men’s team. Well thankfully, they’ll be looking spiffy in their $3475 uniforms.

ASSU Speakers Bureau $114,796 / $112,296
The bureau brought Howard Dean during the fall quarter, and Dean was confident in spouting Democratic propaganda
because he was sure someone would come to campus later in the year to give the other side. We are still waiting
for someone of Dean’s stature on the other side to show up.

ASSU Legal Counseling $108,390 / $103,370
The largest expense is legal fees at $58,350. The salary money for the financial officer and office coordinator
is $27,000. Payroll taxes are $4,400. Unfortunately, “Formal advice shall not be provided in any case involving Stanford University, faculty, or staff.” Don’t count on getting legal advice if you are planning on suing Stanford for obstructing free speech.

Stanford Band $76,360 / $62,618
The Stanford Band requested over $6000 dollars for “copies.” To be fair, $1000 of the money went towards copier rental and maintenance. Yet, that still leaves $5000 for copier supplies. Given the standard market rate of 10 cents per copy, that’s 50,000 copies! Among the copied documents were band newsletters and holiday cards.

News Readership Program $68,088 / $54,116
They budget $53,116.00 to purchase copies of the NY Times and San Jose Mercury News which are distributed around campus. When will they bring some diversity of perspective to campus, such as the Wall Street Journal?

The Stanford Daily $49,000 / None
The Daily, that other venerable tabloid at Stanford, has requested $49,000 - a fairly healthy amount, given their staggering advertising revenues (tanning salon, anyone?). Still, there is no doubt that their numbers are accurate: lots of papers lead to lots of costs. Maybe they should cut distribution...

Student Organizing Committee for the Arts $36,266 / $32,966
SOCA requested over $2500 to pay for tickets to arts events in San Francisco. In essence, the group wanted the school to fund their entertainment. If this is an acceptable use of student money, perhaps the students could also pay for Giants season tickets.

Black Student Union $34,555 / $23,955
BSU undoubtedly does a commendable job of representing and advancing African-American culture on campus. The complexity of their special fees request, however, can sometimes obscure some of the less responsible claims that they have made. For example, they planned two separate retreats for next year, as well as exorbitant printing/advertising and food costs.

Stanford Film Society $34,485 / $34,485
SFS requested $12,000 dollars for a “United Nations Association” film festival. The majority of the costs involved rental of auditoriums. Yet, the question remains: is this a necessary venture for students to fund?

MEChA $33,747.33 / $30,872
Did you know that MEChA lists itself as a “Political/Social Awareness” VSO (Voluntary Student Organization), not an Ethnic/Cultural organization? That explains their penchant for liberal politicking.

Stanford Martial Arts Program $32,669.82 / $32,669.82
The Stanford Martial Arts Program seems dedicated to kicking out hunger with almost $9,000 on food and drinks (they only requested $3,767 from the Special Fees budget).

Stanford AmericanIndian Organization $32,640 / $27,343.50
SAIO works very hard to fund itself. SAIO only expects Special Fees to pay for $12,000 of the Powwow, which costs $130,000 to put on.

North-American Solar Challenge $30,850 / None
This hardly-mainstream and hardly-visible group nonetheless felt it appropriate to request $25,000 out of their $133,000 equipment budget from Special Fees. The Committee rightly noted that this group would be better served seeking funding from the Stanford Fund, the School of Engineering, as well as outside sponsors. As interesting and exciting the project could conceivably be, we are forced to wonder whether the interest actually merits a total of $30,850.

Alternative Spring Break $24,132 / $24,132
ASB promotes service learning immersion trips that may focus on the struggles of AIDS victims, women, disabled
people, or the urban underclass in San Francisco. Other ASB trips are environmentally-oriented. One trip took students to Monterey to learn about the threat to ecosystems in Monterey from land development. Another trip took students to Hawaii to study the effects of modernization on the beaches and culture of the islands.

Barrio Assistance $21,566.96 / $12,060.97
None of Barrio’s funds go towards providing the general student body with any service. A fair amount of the money they request goes towards field trips for local kids – but who can be against that?

Wind Ensemble $19,600 / $15,600
Roughly three-fourths of the money goes toward rental of Dink Aud. The second major expense is equipment rental for a tour in which the Wind Ensemble “play concerts and sightsee.” Subsidizing sightseeing hardly seems fair (their $4,000 food request for the same was turned down). Their “fall retreat” also seems unworthy of subsidy: at $400, it costs as much as concert receptions.

Student Initiated Courses $14,835 / $14,835
SIC brings 45 courses to Stanford each year. If only all Stanford courses could be this inexpensive.

Los Salseros $14,647 / None
Senate approved $2000 for live band concerts from the Bay Area and $2400 for the “ABM quote.” In other words, it looks like they’ll spend more money on the janitors than on the concert honoraria.

Muslim StudentAwareness Network $13,925.78 / $13,925.78
MSAN requested and was recommended to receive over $13000 from special fees funding. This includes speakers on all issues of interest to the Muslim world, including Sudan, Iraq, and an entire month devoted to Palestine. This past year, money was used to bring in the Sudanese ambassador to the United States, who spouted propaganda to disguise the genocide that his government was committing. It is questionable that an organization with this little regard for humanitarian crises instigated by Muslim governments should be entrusted with this much money.

Sexual Health PeerResource Center $12,937 / $12,937
The Sexual Health Peer Resource Center is ready to respond to casual sex with the help of “casual labor” ($21/hr security guards for their parties totaling $252.00 – not bad for a “casual” job).

Volunteers in Latin America $12,246.61 / None
VILA requested funding for, among other books, the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (listed as “preoperational reading material”). One Amazon.com reviewer describes the book: “it has the dated quality of a mid-1950s Soviet textbook on Marxism-Leninism…”

The Stanford Progressive $11,505 / $10,500
During a Senate meeting, Senate Chair Chris Lin commented that the $500 allocated for distribution bins might be inappropriate seeing that The Progressive has not received approval of bin designs from the University. For years, the Pub Board has been trying to move The Progressive toward finding alternative means aside from student funding through outside donations and the like. If The Review can fund itself, why not The Progressive?

Bioscience Quarterly $9,000 / None
What is this magazine, and where is its appeal? Certainly the four undergraduate
bio-scientists on campus will be jumping for joy when they hear that we have picked up the entire $9,000 publishing tab, but how about the rest of us?

Stanford Axe Committee $7,680 / $7,680
Unbeknowest to many, the SAC budgets $580 each year to maintain and secure the Axe Case in Arrillaga even if there is no axe in it. Although a long term contract with California Security, perhaps they should seek a more accommodating contractor.