The GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee pitched its Student Activities Fee and Endowment reform to students at a town hall Wednesday night in the Reiss Science Building.

embers of Fin/App continually placed emphasis on the fact that SAFE reform was merely a proposal, and was by no means the final word on the Student Activities Fee. Instead, they wanted to get the feedback and input of the student body and craft a referendum accordingly. The town hall turnout was low, however, with about 10 students in attendance aside from the members of the Fin/App committee.

SAFE reform currently proposes to allot all of the $100 Student Activities Fee toward student groups instead of maintaining the current plan that puts $50 toward student groups and another $50 to a special endowment valued at $1.9 million.

The reform would also increase the Student Activities Fee each year to match the rate of inflation. As for the endowment, GUSA proposes to take the money gained from its interest and place the rate of inflation back into the endowment.

In comparison to other universities, Georgetown’s Student Activities Fee is relatively minimal, members of the Fin/App Committee said.

Stanford, for example, has a Student Activities Fee of $357, all of which is allocated to student groups.

“There are certainly a lot of groups that go to GUSA and feel like they don’t have enough funding. Our primary goal is to give groups in need more money,” Fin/App Committee member Colton Malkerson (COL ’13) said.

“Anyone can go to a GUSA rep to put forward ideas for a referendum – the best idea doesn’t necessarily come from us,” Fin/App Chair Greg Laverriere (COL ’12) said.

After gathering the input of students, Fin/App said they will go back to the drawing board and forge a more specific plan to present to another town hall in the near future.

Another issue that arose at the meeting was the game plan for the $1.9 million currently in the endowment. This money has amassed over the past 10 years from the activities fees of current Georgetown students and alumni.

“We want to do the $2 million justice [and] further Georgetown’s identity. When we leave Georgetown we want to be proud to say that we did this,” Laverriere said.

However, senators stressed that the more pressing issue at hand was the Student Activities Fee reform.

“We are now just delaying discussion of endowment,” Malkerson said.

Another issue that came up in the meeting was what to do with any funds left over if the referendum did pass.

“Any money that does not go directly to clubs can still be used in some sort of shared resource. We have huge space issues and storage issues, and we could invest in something that we use as a community,” Fin/App member Tyler Sax (COL ’13) said.

Fin/App hopes to have the final referendum crafted by spring’s Budget Summit at the latest.

“Ideally we would like [the referendum] to be done before the [GUSA] presidential election, maybe put them both on the same ballot,” Fin/App Committee member Chris Pigott (COL ’12) said.”