The mock trial program's request for financial support has reignited a contentious debate within the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate about how the body should spend the recovered funds.
Specifically, senators are torn over whether to liberally allocate the money as the worsening economy clamps down on student groups.
While senators last semester aimed to diffuse the infighting over the remainder of the nearly $1 million they received in compensation for the alleged embezzlement scandal, they reopened old wounds on Sunday when they narrowly rejected the mock trial program's plea for money to compete in Tennessee, instead offering only a loan of the amount requested.
"[This debate was] very telling of the divisions of the Senate," TCU Treasurer Matt Shapanka said.
The mock trial program plans to send two teams to a national qualifier later this month in Memphis, and current projections indicate that they will have to pay around $8,500 in travel and supply expenses.
Late last month, the Senate and the Allocations Board (ALBO) offered the program $4,325 worth of co-sponsorship and buffer funds, but declined to provide any more.
Now the program has asked senators to dip into the recovered funds to meet its needs. But the request touched off another debate within the Senate about how to prioritize the recovered funds designated for student groups.
"I think the Senate failed to fully articulate its vision for the recovered funds this past fall," Shapanka, a senior, said. "It's unfortunate that it took a controversial request the next semester for the Senate to even have that debate."
After fulfilling various obligations last semester, the Senate was left with $687,780 to allocate as it saw fit.
In December, senators decided to save $300,000, use $300,000 to create an endowment to supplement student funding and allocate the remaining $87,780 to student groups.
After allocations to WMFO, the Zamboni, an engineering conference and other initiatives, the Senate now has around $50,000 out of the $87,780 left. But according to Shapanka, there is little consensus about how to spend it. "We never figured out what we wanted to do with it," he said.
On Wednesday, the mock trial program requested the remaining $4,175 to pay for the trip to Memphis. ALBO recommended giving the program $980 from the recovered funds and a loan for the remainder.
Shapanka broke a tied vote on the proposal on Sunday by rejecting it because he thought senators wanted to debate the issue more and ultimately offer the program more than $980. "It turned out it backfired," he said.
In lieu of ALBO's recommendation, the Senate offered the remaining $4,175 to the program as a loan to be paid back by June 30. That motion passed by a nine-to-eight margin.
Senator Shabazz Stuart, a sophomore, expressed disappointment with the outcome. Since the Senate's buffer funds have dried up and the president's office can no longer offer co-sponsorship money, he said that the Senate should do more to help struggling student groups.
"This is a time when no one else on campus has any money, and the Senate has a surplus of funds," he said.
"If you want to be a school that encourages students to do things … we need to stand behind them once they do well," he added, referring to the mock trial program's recent bout of success.
Senate procedures muddied the waters during the debate, since the body normally does not approve funding for travel expenses.
But Jeff Kiok, a former mock trial member who graduated last semester and now coaches for the program, said that the restriction is impractical in this particular case.
"Our primary activity is travel," he said. "If you say you won't fund travel, we can't exist."
Shapanka supports a middle ground. While he normally opposes the idea of paying for travel, he said that in this case, it seemed prudent to make an exception.
In particular, he echoed Stuart in noting that because the administration has its hands tied with financial aid and operational expenses, the Senate is the only on-campus body that can adequately provide funding to groups.
"I'm just trying to be pragmatic here," he said. "In my opinion, we're the only game in town."
While he would like to see the Senate give more aid to the mock trial program, Shapanka, like most senators, wants to see members who plan to travel to Memphis fund at least a portion of the remaining $4,175 on their own.
"We don't send any group away for four days for free," he said.
As senators debate their priorities for the remaining recovered funds, mock trial members are exploring alternate sources of funding, but to little avail.
Sophomore Jonathan Lautin, the mock trial program's treasurer, said that the current situation highlights a common problem.
"The better we do, the harder it is for us to keep competing," he said.
This year, the program fielded four teams in regional competitions and three earned the right to go to Memphis. But according to league rules, each school has a two-team cap for national qualifiers, so one of the teams was cut from the trip.
This streak of success is unprecedented for the young program, which had never even qualified a team until last year. After this season's campaign, the program ranks in the top 11 in the country.
Team members have not yet decided whether they will formally ask senators to reconsider their funding decisions.
Regardless, the issue of the recovered funds is likely to reemerge in the Senate. "We rehash the debate [all the] time," Shapanka said.
In the short term, both Shapanka and Stuart support making the most of the recovered funds while they last.
"It's an issue of priorities," Stuart said. "And our first priorities are to student groups."
Rob Silverblatt contributed reporting to this article.
