They could hope, but that probably wasn’t realistic.

The contingent of University Union representatives may have guessed that budget cuts would come. UU Concerts co-executive director Adam Gorode attempted to justify his organization’s existence when the spending bills came up: Method Man, Wyclef Jean, Phantom Planet, Talib Kweli and De La Soul had all played Syracuse University over the previous 10 months. The Student Association says funding decisions are based in part on a group’s track record – but this year, the Finance Board cut the Block Party’s budget by one-third.

It was a common sight, one that UU has faced for years and one that continues to stoke a fire within the members. The organization lives and dies by the finicky schedules and rotund price ranges of musicians, politicians and movie studios, but it endures semester-by-semester finance allocation that can be bogged down in delays. If they received their money earlier and more consistently, UU’s officials argue, they could put on a better show.

The solution UU has kicked around for years is a change in its funding status to set up official ‘programming boards,’ which already exist at many other schools, to handle campus entertainment and deliver guaranteed funds, not subject to debate, on time each year.

In that meeting, which stretched well into the morning, even Gorode’s mentioning of former Phish front-man Trey Anastasio playing The Hill was not enough to sway an Assembly faced with fiscal realties and dozens of other organizations clamoring for finite funds. Block Party was jeopardized after the Assembly sent the spending bill to the Finance Board for reconsideration.

Funding for the concert did come through, albeit two months late, cutting into precious planning time. Still, the fire burns.

‘It’s been played around with,’ said University Union President Dennis Jacobs of the idea of changing funding status.

The question boils down to knowing when, and preferably how much, each of the UU’s organizations – Comedy, Concerts, Speakers, Cinemas and WERW – will be funded for the year. Jacobs, who is currently in Minneapolis for a campus programming conference, said the situation that UU is in now – being a de facto programming board without having guaranteed funds – is uncommon for a school the size of SU.

‘The majority of these schools get their money at the beginning of the year,’ Jacobs said. ‘(Agents and talent bookers) can’t believe that we operate this way.’

He points to schools such as University of Central Florida, Virginia Tech and Rochester Institute of Technology as examples of a set-fee situation working to the students’ advantage. RIT alone has brought David Spade, Robert Redford and 2005 Grammy winner Kanye West in recent years.

This question is not a new phenomenon; it has simmered below the surface of every budget debate dealing with campus entertainment. Former Student Association president Andrew Thomson said he remembers the thought being thrown around a few times during his administration, and his successor, Drew Lederman, said it was only organizational aspects of UU that sidelined more active discussion.

Thomson, who graduated last May and now works back at his home in Kennebuckport, Maine, said he always came out against direct funding for any organization.

‘It is really just one step closer to taking away the representation that students have,’ Thomson said. ‘Ideally, all students should have some representation through Student Association.’

Both former presidents agreed that if the organization seeks to move to any kind of direct funding, and therefore circumvent the power of SA to some degree, the leadership of the programming board would have to be directly elected by the students to maintain accountability. It is this that originally gave Lederman pause, and he said the change should happen before any kind of funding change is granted. And Jacobs agrees.

‘We would owe it to the students,’ he said. ‘We care about them.’

He also noted that, should he be re-elected president during UU’s internal elections in the coming weeks, he would push for direct elections for the next cycle.

Current SA President Travis Mason refused comment on this story and did not seek to go on the record as to why.

Thomson said a change would have to be carefully thought through, as it could simply redirect the heat from one argument to another. Which brings up another burning question: where would money for extra funding, direct or otherwise, come from?

Comptroller Andrew Urankar: ‘It would have to come from somewhere.’

And, considering there have been no official steps taken to establish a change, that might be the most detailed answer available.

Possible solutions could include an increase in the student activity fee or the establishment of another fee entirely, either of which are likely to see some repercussion in the wallets of students and parents. Josh McIntosh, senior associate director of the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning, sees this as a possible problem, considering the variable entertainment tastes among students.

‘Some students don’t see UU as a campus-wide programming board,’ he said.

But in a sea of questions, there is the old Steve Martin phrase on how to be a millionaire and never pay taxes: get a million dollars and never pay taxes. Former Comptroller Maggie Misztal has a similar maxim when it comes to the tricky world of doling out the student fee: more money, less controversy.

‘Do you want to fund more events or more mainstream events?’ she asked.

As for the burning question, the solution could be on the horizon.

‘It would be beneficial,’ Jacobs said. ‘But we could see ourselves running into more and more problems if this doesn’t happen.’

News Editor Steven Kovach contributed to this report.

Published on February 15, 2005 at 12:00 pm