Discuss “Executive privilege”

Over the weekend, 127 student organizations submitted budget requests totaling $1.3 million. With only around $950,000 to distribute, the Joint Funding Committee (JFC) will soon begin the work of trimming about 26 percent from the organizations’ requests.

What JFC does is clear: It decides who gets what. How they decide, on the other hand, is not so clear.

The best way to learn about JFC’s decision-making is to consider the information its members don’t take into account as they allocate the funds.

Most surprisingly, JFC does not take into account how much money goes toward different types of activities. But as caretakers of the students’ money, JFC members should look at the big picture. They should take into account how they are...