This temporary budget will be in effect until Week Three of Fall Quarter, when the council will finalize all allocations and distribute any remaining funds.

Since the approved budget allocates more money than the original draft, the amount the council has not yet reserved — to be finalized Fall Quarter — has dropped from $219,505.09 to $194,549.63.

According to Ang, the most contentious addition to the A.S. budget was the inclusion of the new Winter Comedy event, proposed by Vice President of Student Life Kristina Pham and newly elected Associate Vice President of Concerts and Events Brian Wong. Pham and Wong requested $30,000 to fund the project, a replacement of the annual WinterFest concert — an event that was discontinued two years ago.

“We’d like to bring a comedy festival to our events, just to have something nice in the winter,” Wong said at the meeting. “It’s also a mix-up of FallFest and Sun God.”

Though she approved them all, Ben Hassine expressed reservations about the additional allocations.

“I’m really worried that we might be spending a little too much within our own offices, and I just feel like, especially with office of Concerts and Events, [it] takes up a lot of funding that we can look at little more,” Ben Hassine said.

Though Pham’s comedy event was added as a line item, the council did not guarantee it any specific amount of funds. According to Ang, funding for the event will be drawn from mandate reserves — the council’s backup fund supply — during the Fall Revise process. He added that the event will be a one-time trial; if it is successful, it may be may be more permanently integrated into to the 2011–12 budget.

The council also increased funding for diversity projects from an originally proposed $300 to $1,000.

AVP of Diversity Affairs Alyssa Peace said she requested more money in order to hold events during Welcome Week. Because the temporary budget is good through Week Three of Fall Quarter, she would not have been able to hold events otherwise.

“Kristina [Pham] and I haven’t planned what our Welcome Week program will be, but we’re thinking something on Library Walk in conjunction with the Cross-Cultural Center that shows students what resources are available to them,” Peace said.

Similarly, the athletics allocations increased from $3,000 to $9,650 at the request of AVP of Athletic Relations Pauline Nuth.

Nuth said she requested the increase in order to fund summer outreach programs — such as working with orientation leaders to encourage athleticism and game attendance.

“Last year, the full line item for athletic relations [was $24,000], so $3,000 was really low — even just for Fall Quarter,” Nuth said.

In addition, A.S.-distributed U.S. Grants were expanded to $22,500 from the original $7,500 because the former AVP of College Affairs requested the entire year’s allocation, instead of just up to fall quarter. According to Ang, U.S. Grants are scholarships students can request for research projects they are working on with faculty.

The allocation to the UC Student Association was increased from $8,000 to $10,000 because Vice President of External Affairs Michael Lam is trying to mobilize 50 students to attend the UCSA Congress, usually held in March, at $200 per student.

Ang said he was satisfied with the revised increases to the budget.

“We would have made most changes anyway during Fall Quarter, so I’m pretty OK with the changes,” Ang said.

Readers can contact Angela Chen at [email protected].