Educational Operating Grant Pilot Money Disbursed

The Educational Operating Grants program, which was announced on November 17, 2004, was developed in response to continued financial strains on many FSILGs, and to help them cover operating expenses related to their educational facilities. The results are now starting to show.

"Receiving IRDF grant money for education expenses is really helping our fraternity be able to continue and thrive," said Bruce Lundie ‘88, Alumni Corporation Treasurer for Phi Kappa Sigma. "[Before the IRDF Educational Operating grant] we had put together a white paper outlining the costs and the revenue base with fewer members, and with the ongoing expenses it looked like it would be sustainable for a while, but it would be tough to continue."

That picture is now much improved, thanks in a large part to Phi Kappa Sigma's participation as a pilot chapter for the new program.

With the pilot now complete, the operating grants program is ready to go full bore and can be an important factor in establishing a sound fiscal base for all FSILGs at MIT. The following is what has transpired in the months leading up to March 2005.

• Two of the three chapters that participated in the pilot, Phi Kappa Sigma and Epsilon Theta, received their grants in early 2005. The third pilot chapter, Chi Phi, has served to refine the application for reimbursement for educational equipment such as desks and shared computer equipment, and will receive their grant within a few weeks.
• An application kit has been distributed to each chapter, whose officers may contact the Chris Rezek '99 of the FSILG Cooperative, Inc. for assistance in applying for the grants.
• The application process is now sufficiently streamlined so that completed applications can be reviewed and a check processed within 60 days.
• All 41 buildings owned by the FSILGs have been measured and have had their educational area percentages assigned via standard method developed by the MIT Facilities Department. This data is also directly useful for chapters who wish to apply for IRDF Construction or Project grants.
• As a byproduct of the measurements, all chapters now have standard CAD dimensional drawings of their properties which are securely stored in Facilities database. Some houses have begun to add other "layers" showing items such as sprinkler systems, piping, and electrical circuits.

Epsilon Theta plans to use the grant they received to cover expenses related to maintaining the house and running the organization. "We very much appreciate the assistance from the IRDF," said Alice Leung '93, a member of Epsilon Theta's Alumni Board of Directors. "The IRDF's pilot operating grant program will benefit Epsilon Theta by helping us invest in maintaining our chapter house so that we can continue to provide a good home and supportive learning environment for students."

In addition to Educational Operating Grants, the IRDF, or Independent Residence Development Fund, also offers low interest construction loans and educational project grants. Thanks to the measurement effort mentioned above, the work involved in applying for an Educational Project Grants is now much simpler. These grants can be used to fund construction projects which affect the educational functions of the chapters, as most projects do.

The IRDF is administered by the MIT Treasurer's Office. All loan applications are reviewed by an Allocation Board, consisting of Dave Latham '61, Steve Stuntz '67, and John Seeger '56. In addition, there is now a Grants Advisory Board, which determines qualifications and specifications for FSILG grant eligibility. This board is chaired by Joe Maguire, Director of Real Estate in the Treasurer's Office, and includes Tom Holtey '62, who is the Association of Independent Living Groups representative, and Bob Ferrara '67, Director of FSILG Alumni Relations. Chris Rezek '99, Director of the FSILG Cooperative Inc., is also an active participant.

"We learned a lot during the pilot and were able to further simplify the process and work out the kinks, so there is now a straightforward means for all of our chapters to apply," was Bob Ferrara's assessment. "New legal and technical issues were addressed and either answered in the procedure or in one of the FAQs on the IRDF web site".

Phi Kappa Sigma, Chi Phi, and Epsilon Theta were chosen as the pilot chapters because they had already completed some necessary first steps for their applications. Each chapter had done some initial educational area percentage calculations as a participant in recent IRDF project grant applications, giving them a degree of familiarity with the process. Both house corporations also were willing to be flexible test subjects as the application process was revised and improved.

Laura Dean, President of the Alumni Corporation for Epsilon Theta said the application process was very reasonable. "It was not unduly burdensome, even in the pilot when we were helping debug the system."

Chapters who wish to apply for IRDF Educational Operating Grants can do so now. Applications are available to download from the IRDF website at http://web.mit.edu/irdf/. The process to receive the grant requires only 60 days after the chapter submits an application.

Initially, grant money will be advanced from the IRDF's accumulated interest and endowment earnings. In the long-term, however, the grants must be funded by new donations to the IRDF.

Donations can be made to the IRDF through the MIT Giving Office. The Giving Office can be contacted by emailing giving@mit.edu, by calling 1-800-MIT-1865, or by writing Giving to MIT, Room 10-110, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139-4307.

For more information about the IRDF or the Educational Operating Grants program, call Bob Ferrara at 617-253-7495 or visit the IRDF website at http://web.mit.edu/irdf/.