Beginning tomorrow at noon, students will have 48 hours to vote for chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board. We strongly encourage students to read up on the campaign and cast a ballot. As the organization in charge of apportioning funds to student groups, UFB plays a major role in our lives on campus. After speaking with the candidates, we believe David Chanin '12 is the right pick for UFB chair.
Chanin's opponent, Jason Lee '12, currently serves as UFB vice chair, giving him valuable experience making policy decisions. Lee's priorities include increasing transparency and strengthening collaborative bonds with the Undergraduate Council of Students and individual student groups — both worthy goals. But his emphasis on improving professionalism, while certainly important, was also at the heart of his campaign for vice chair last year.
Chanin is campaigning on a forward-thinking agenda that is ambitious but realistic. He has spent the last two years on UFB working with student groups and serving as liaison between UFB and the Brown University Activities Committee. Chanin's background makes him well-qualified for UFB chair.
Central to Chanin's campaign is his goal of implementing an online budgeting process for student groups next year. Such a system is long overdue — online budgeting will allow student groups to easily access data from past years and submit their current proposals in a more convenient form. Chanin has already done preliminary work on this project and offered us a clear plan of action for implementing the system in full.
We were also impressed with Chanin's idea of directing a small share of UFB funding to UCS for allocation to students with innovative solutions to campus problems such as event publicity. Chanin told us UFB must follow strict guidelines when doling out money, making UCS a better appropriator of such a fund. The idea is a sound one and underscores Chanin's commitment to improving student groups' effectiveness, even when that means ceding some power.
Finally, we believe Chanin is the right person to push the stalled Capital Closet project to fruition. This initiative would see UFB purchase equipment student groups frequently use at events, saving money currently used for renting such equipment. It is disconcerting that such a great idea, which has been on the table for over a year, has gained little traction with the administration. Chanin is committed to persuading President Ruth Simmons and other administrators to give the project the go-ahead.
Both candidates would look to strengthen alumni relations as a means of finding alternative funding sources and push to enlarge the student activities endowment, which would render the student activities fee unnecessary if it grew large enough. We are glad both candidates are committed to these important goals.
If you are not in a student group yourself, then surely you have been to an event put on by one. UFB plays a very important role in the operations of student groups, which in turn help to keep our campus vibrant, engaging and entertaining. Chanin is the right person to chair this vital institution and ensure that student groups continue to flourish.
Students can vote for UFB chair through MyCourses. We will offer our endorsement in the race for Undergraduate Council of Students president tomorrow.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
