Hillel's budget revamped after dramatic SFC cuts

Budget originally cut by 50 percent by SFC

Hillel's funding cuts in this year's Student Finance Committee (SFC) allocations prompted angry students to post fliers aroung campus calling parents to protest. Hillel is in the process of submitting a budget appeal to the SFC in an attempt to remedy what they believe was an unfair budget cut.

Hillel's budget was cut to $12,437.81, a 30 percent cut from last year's budget of $19,154. Most of the cuts were realized in Shabbat funding which was cut by 50 percent. Hillel maintains that their traditional Shabbat dinner will not be able to continue after early next semester because of lack of funds.

Hillel members met with President of the College Nancy Dye in mid-September to try to get the president's office to guarantee that Shabbat would not be discontinued. However, the president's office told Hillel representatives that it could not extend emergency funding to Hillel. According to Hillel co-chair Erica Seager, the president mantained she could not offer such a large grant to a religious organization.

Later in the year, Hillel's budget appeal was not approved by the SFC, ending Hillel's hopes for increasing their funding to pay for Shabbat through the traditional funding mechanism.

Hillel met with President of the College Nancy Dye to discuss alternative funding mechanisms that might be possible for Shabbat dinner. An endowment for Shabbat was suggested as a possible way to provide stable monetary support for Shabbat in the long run.

Hillel co-chair Erica Seager said, "Dye and SFC were very positive about establishing an endowment for Shabbat. If the President doesn't give the OK to this, then it won't happen. From my understanding, she hasn't done that yet."

Then, after months of struggling for Shabbat funding, Hillel, Dye and CDS found a solution to the funding problem. The solution involves a co-operative aggreement between Hillel, Kosher/Hallal Co-op and Campus Dining Services (CDS).

CDS will now assume responsibility for purchasing the food for the Shabbat meal. Hillel has previously been unable to fully fund the weekly Shabbat meal using their budgeted allowance.

"We buy a lot of food, so we think with the strength of our buying power the College can do the same dinner for considerably less money," Dye said.