Student Union’s (SU) Executive Council announced their list of 30 term pledges in an email to the student body on Tuesday, Aug. 25. SU pledged to end block funding, cut taxes for student group fundraisers, and more, with the goal of encouraging club growth and success.

These are broken down into short-, medium-, and long-term goals that the current SU body hopes to enact throughout the course of the year. Senior and SU President Romen Der Manuelian explained that the majority of these goals intend to cut down on the SU paperwork that student organizations need to complete.

“There’s too much bureaucracy. The rules are too complicated, and that’s really the core mission of what our [executive branch] is trying to address: making SU simple and working,” Der Manuelian said.

One of SU’s goals is to end block funding permanently. Student groups such as Uncle Joe’s, Campus Y, and EST have previously used this electoral process to fund larger budgets and student-facing roles. 

In the coming year, Der Manuelian shared that SU will explore and decide on the options for funding groups that previously relied on block funding. SU is currently working with EST, Uncle Joe’s and Campus Y to determine transition plans. The groups will either be funded as normal student groups or as an Executive Entity of SU, meaning they can appeal to SU’s vice president of finance for funding throughout the year.

EST became an Executive Entity after the organization lost its block funding last spring. Senior and EST President Isabella Gonzales said this framework gives EST more flexibility.

“We previously believed that block funding was the most beneficial option for EST but have found the new designation of an Executive Entity to be more adaptive,” Gonzales wrote in an email to Student Life. “Block funding has always been a large undertaking for the EST team, and being an [E]xecutive [E]ntity presents an opportunity to focus on programming and service.”

Der Manuelian explained that the block funding’s ineffectiveness has been a long-term concern for SU as it requires unnecessary paperwork and opens risky loopholes.

“Block funding doesn’t work from an efficiency standpoint, it doesn’t work from a practical standpoint, and there are multiple examples to show how it’s a very inflexible system that’s deeply inefficient,” Der Manuelian said.

All other groups, which aren’t funded through block funding, won’t experience any financial or budget changes. Senior and Campus Y Student Director Sydney Buffett indicated that moving away from block funding would likely not have any impact on the organization’s allocated budget.

“This change would likely not influence the budget we put together for Campus Y, but the process of getting the budget approved would be much less intensive,” Buffett wrote in an email to Student Life. 

In their email, SU also pledged to cut student fundraiser taxes. Previously, if any amount of SU funds were used to finance student group fundraisers, SU collected a tax of 80% of the event’s total revenue, even if it exceeded SU’s initial funds. The newly proposed tax cuts would limit SU to only collecting the money they had initially provided. 

While this would allow student groups to raise money more easily, SU wrote in their email that they hope the new policy will result in lower ticket prices for on-campus fundraising performances. 

This email came as part of SU’s ongoing efforts to more clearly communicate their work with the student body. Last year, they introduced a liaison system that provided each student group with their own assigned senator and treasurer. An open town hall will be held this fall for students to voice their opinions regarding the changes.

Der Manuelian felt that it was important for students to be informed on SU’s work in order to foster democratic engagement.

“They can hold us accountable to change the things that they elected us to do,” Der Manuelian said. “We want people to be voting in elections. We want people to run for office. … We want them to know what we’re actually doing because every student pays the student activities fee, and they should know where their money’s going, who’s advocating for them, and why.”