Dear Editors and the Wellesley College Community,

The Student Organization Funding Committee would like to begin by making it clear that the committee supports all organizations on this campus and seeks to work for all of them to enable them to function at their best. The committee is always open to community concerns. Thus, the first ten minutes of all SOFC meetings have always been open for anyone to voice questions, comments, or concerns.

This year, SOFC’s time and energy has been devoted to considering the wide variety of needs on campus and how to best meet them. SOFC has examined existing and past policies in an endeavor to update existing policies and create new policies that serve all students fairly. For this reason, SOFC has concentrated much of our efforts to the equal allocation and distribution of the student activities fee.

A part of equal and fair distribution of funds is recognizing the wishes of students. This year, SOFC is making an conscious effort to supply funding to events for which students have demonstrated interest through past and intended participation. For this purpose, SOFC has placed greater emphasis on event justification. Specifically, by asking all organizations for a justification of the number of expected student attendees, SOFC hopes to ensure that the benefits of funding are reaching the largest possible portion of our student body.

As a committee providing service to our campus, SOFC seeks to see all sides and come to a holistically beneficial conclusion. As such, SOFC examines both the past and present in order to reach the wisest possible decisions. In this vein, the reintroduction of the previously existing printing cap fits into the larger picture of change, as SOFC seeks to fix the policy gaps left by previous reform. SOFC as a whole has put considerable thought into the logistics of the printing cap and the effects that it will have on publications on campus. In drafting this policy, SOFC examined the major distribution locations, which include all residence halls, major academic buildings, and hubs of campus life. SOFC then allocated a certain number of printed publication copies to each location, allowing for variance of publication number based on the average student traffic in each location. The number of copies per location multiplied by the number of locations, plus an extra 60 copies, was what generated the cap of 300 copies per semester. SOFC then enabled organizations, who demonstrated need, to easily appeal for another 100 printed copies.

In this day and age, we all recognize the importance of environmentally sustainable practices. While SOFC recognizes the importance of print publications being able to produce physical, printed copies of their work, we also seek to build a better and more sustainable future for Wellesley and the world by enabling and encouraging environmentally friendly living. As such, the Student Bursar is currently working with college administrators and staff in order to provide the student body an online platform as an additional outlet for communication and information dissemination for all organizations, including those who publish. SOFC believes that all organizations are up to the challenge of creating more sustainable methods of information distribution. SOFC encourages all organizations on campus to join the effort to build a better future.