After fears that it was running out of funds earlier in the semester, Undergraduate Organizations Funding Committee members are optimistic they will receive enough new funding to continue giving money to student organizations.

UOFC members put funding notifications on hold late last month after spending more than half of their annual budget last semester. Last week, Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead granted the UOFC more funding, providing $10,000 of the UOFC’s request for $14,000. UOFC Chair Elliott Mogul ’05 said the committee may have to tighten funding for incidental items such as food for student groups.

Last semester, the UOFC spent $38,000 of its $66,000 budget. In the past, the UOFC has spent most of its money in the spring, leading UOFC members to worry they would not have enough funds for spring semester.

Mogul said when he met with Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg about two weeks ago, she granted him access to the spring semester UOFC files from last year. From his research, Mogul learned the UOFC spent approximately two-thirds of its money at its very last meeting.

As a result, the UOFC figured it would need $14,000 to continue the same pattern of funding this semester. Mogul said the deans met and decided to grant the UOFC $10,000, about 70 percent of the money it needed.

“Dean Brodhead was very generous, considering the financial situation the University is in,” Mogul said.

Mogul said the UOFC will not run out of funds before the last meeting, but it will certainly use all its money.

“We will also have to look carefully at inactive versus active budgets,” Mogul said. “Food for a meeting is not conducive to the direct goal of an organization … so we’ll be looking a little more stringently at those expenditures. It won’t affect any one organization significantly.”

Mogul said he hopes not only that the budget increase will be a permanent fixture, but that the amount of the increase will be even larger for next year.

UOFC member Lauren Thompson ’05 said the UOFC could not send out funding notifications directly after its last meeting.

“We did wait a couple extra days — like three more days than usual — until I heard from the administration,” Mogul said. “But none of our decisions from our first meeting were changed.”

Mogul estimates that when the UOFC has finished distributing funds, the amount of money for the spring semester should be roughly equal to the $38,000 spent in the fall, or about $76,000 in total. During the 2001-2002 year, the UOFC distributed about $63,000 — a little less than its total allotted funds. Approximately two-thirds of that was distributed in the last meeting of the spring semester, while only $13,000 was given out in the fall.

Mogul said the UOFC has much more to propose this year.

“A lot of the things the UOFC has done this year aren’t mandated — like advertising itself — but we think it should be,” Mogul said. “We’ll also be switching back to a computerized registration and funding application system next year.”

Despite the small funding shortage, the UOFC remains optimistic.

“We’re hopeful and optimistic that the result of the situation will be to continue helping student organizations get the most out of the UOFC,” Thompson said.