Update of IRDF Activities
By Dean of Student Life Larry Benedict

AILG Plenary Meeting, April 11, 2007

Dave Latham, Steve Stuntz, Tom Holtey, Bob Ferrara and others have reported regularly to you on the IRDF Program at these breakfasts. Please remember that the IRDF is yet another MIT-funded means to promote a healthy FSILG community.

Pretty much every one of our chapters has one or more IRDF loans. In all there are 49 loans outstanding with a balance of $11 million.

And as you know in mid-2004, after some lobbying, the MIT Corporation and the Treasurer approved an Educational Operating Grant program. And virtually every chapter has participated. In the very first year of the program, MIT dispensed $423K. Last fiscal year, due to rule changes, this amount has been reduced to $300K, though a few grants are still in process. Hopefully, this amount will be a little higher when all grants have been submitted for the current fiscal year.

In addition, more houses are now taking advantage of Educational Project Grants. In the last 18 months five houses have been given or will soon receive another $250K in grants for a variety of construction and improvement projects. I'm very encouraged by the sound uses of these funds for educational infrastructure like fully equipped study rooms, Athena clusters, and enhanced libraries.

Increasingly IRDF funds support worthwhile FSILG-wide community initiatives. Here are some important ones:

One area has been in funding ($15K) the FSILG Cooperative's support to chapters for applying for Educational Operating Grants. All but 3 chapters have taken advantage of this assistance.

The IRDF also funds a major share ($35K) of the Safety Licensing & Inspection Program, which was developed by the AILG and has worked so well this past year. This program has been very successful in promoting the health & safety of all our chapters. I congratulate the AILG on their work and we all look forward to supporting this effort in the future.

Starting in January, IRDF supports (at $7.5K) the Insurance Management by the FSILG Cooperative, Inc. We think the FCI can do a very effective and thorough job. And MIT will continue to prepay all the premiums. This payment in excess of $300K was just made, and now the FCI will work with the chapters to reimburse MIT for their individual premiums.

And now the IRDF is supporting the installation of centrally-monitored Carbon Monoxide Detection Systems and Fireplace Conversions mandated by new state regulations. As I think you know, t hese expenditures by your houses will be 100% reimbursable up to an $80K overall limit for the detectors and another $80K for the fireplace conversions.

Along with your several of your alums and the AILG Board, I requested a review of the legal interpretations introduced by MIT's then legal counsel a year and half ago. You may recall these interpretations significantly cut back the educational areas allowed in project and operating grants after the first the first of operation. We also asked that the Treasurer's Office generally review the operations of this vital program. I am pleased to say that the new Treasurer and the MIT controller have now indeed responded to that request. And the results are encouraging. Tom Holtey , Dave Latham, Steve Stuntz, Bob Ferrara and perhaps others were participants in that review. So they can fill you in later in this meeting. For keeping you informed on future IRDF developments, this group will be accompanied by Susan Woodmansee, who has just become a member of the IRDF Board of Allocation, and Jacquelynn Henke, who has joined the IRDF Grant Advisory Board.

We all realize it is critical that alums continue to replenish the IRDF fund, and in fact donations have been increasing steadily for several years now. To help the fundraising, my office also underwrote the development of the IRDF web site at http://web.mit.edu/irdf/ and provided both design and maintenance help.

The IRDF has served us all very well. I'm encouraged by the ways to which your chapters put these funds, all the good community-wide uses - like CO monitoring - that it enables, and am very committed to support it.