Sudler under study: where does the money go?

Once a Sudler fund is obtained, there are strict guidelines concerning how the money is to be handled. There are rules and restrictions on what it can be spent on: Sudler funds cannot, for example, be used to purchase equipment, to pay for projects retroactively, to support visits by outside artists, to pay wages or honoraria, or to purchase food for props or receptions. A project treasurer, preferably a member of the sponsoring college, must handle all of the finances. However, it is unclear to what extent the administrators of the Sudler fund are able to ensure that the money is always used appropriately, and how evenly the Sudler funds are distributed to a diversity of projects.

IN 1983, TO COMMEMORATE THE 50TH anniversary of the residential college system at Yale, Louis Sudler, Class of 1925, endowed a fund to support the creative and performing arts in the colleges. The endowment allows for funding of projects including theater productions, dance, concerts, publications, films or videos and art exhibits. The only stipulation is that the project must be of some benefit to the life of the residential college; usually this requirement is met by holding the performance (or screening, or exhibit) inside the college.

The Sudler fund is administered by the Committee on the Creative and Performing Arts of the Council of Masters, and funds are distributed through each residential college. To apply for a fund, a student must submit a proposal for the project to the residential college Master. Included in the proposal must be a predicted budget, listing expenses ranging from publicity to equipment rental to photocopying. The master evaluates each proposal and refers them to the Committee on Creative and Performing Arts, which meets at the beginning of each semester.

The amount of funding given to each approved project varies depending on the nature of the project. Plays and publications can receive up to $1,200; dance performances, up to $1,000; and concerts, up to $500. Policy changes this year have reduced the amount of funds available to films or videos as well as to visual arts exhibits. Film productions now receive up to $1,000, down from $1,200, and funding for visual art exhibits was lowered from $500 to $400. In addition, the optional practice of providing $500 in seed money to new campus-wide publications was eliminated.

SO WHAT MAKES A GOOD PROPOSAL? "THE
committee considers involvement of members of the college, the impact on college life, the recommendation of the Master, and compliance with the Sudler guidelines," Pat Dallai, Executive Assistant to the Council of Masters, said. The Committee, consisting of Masters Richard Schottenfeld (Davenport), Gary Haller (Jonathan Edwards), Mary Miller (Saybrook), John Rogers (Berkeley), and headed by Pierson Master Harvey Goldblatt, evaluates each proposal and makes the final decision. This fall, the committee evaluated 160 proposals, 140 of which received at least partial funding.

The main concern of the committee is ensuring that the project will benefit the artistic life of the residential college. One of the easiest ways to connect a project to the college is by holding the performance or the exhibit in the college itself. Spaces such as Nick Chapel in Trumbull or Studio 56 in Davenport, where Vineet Dewan, DC '02, recently held a Sudler-funded art exhibit, provide some Sudler projects with a clear link to the college.

However, space in the colleges is limited, or in come cases, nonexistent. This past weekend, A Murder of Crows, a Saybrook Sudler show directed by Ryan Iverson, SY '02, went up in Whitney Humanities Center. In cases such as this, projects need to be tied to the residential college in other ways. In trying to convince Davenport Master Richard Schottenfeld of the positive impact their production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile would have on Davenport, Holme and Peters provided several reasons. "We plan to run short teaser excerpts in the dining hall and give production crew and casting preference to D-porters," Holme said. In addition to this, they hope to bring in Steve Martin for a Davenport Master's Tea. Apparently they made a good impression on the Master and the Committee—their application for a fund was approved.

Another successful Sudler fund applicant this semester was Michael Lew, JE '03. He received a fund through Jonathan Edwards for his production of Three Men of Golgotha, which he both wrote and directed. Having already been involved with two Sudler shows, Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Artaud's Jet of Blood, Lew knows as much about the process of obtaining a Sudler fund as anyone. "In my experience, it's a pretty reliable process if you have a project you believe in," he said.

So reliable, in fact, that Holme and Peters found that once they received funding, they had nowhere to stage their production because a number of other Sudler productions had already taken up the available performance space on campus. "Apparently, all the other Sudler shows had forged ahead with the assumption that they would be getting the funding they applied for. According to some people I've talked to, this is standard practice," Peters said. Lew agreed, stating that he began pre-production activities, such as photocopying scripts, for the Three Men of Golgotha prior to receiving confirmation that he would receive a fund. As a result, Picasso at the Lapin Agile is being postponed until next semester.

IN MANY CASES—BUT NOT IN ALL—IT IS FAIRLY EASY to receive a Sudler fund for a creative project. For new campus-wide publications, however, getting funding has become a tricky process. The Sudler guidelines for such publications state that "funding of campus-wide publications will be at the discretion of the committee, and only when the proposer and the sponsoring Master show how a campus-wide publication will impact and enhance the artistic life of the college." Since it is difficult to demonstrate how a campus-wide publication can benefit a specific college, there has been little funding given to such publications in recent years. This semester, in fact, start-up funding for campus publications was eliminated entirely. However, "magazines based in a residential college that have the students in a particular residential college as an audience do receive generous support from the Sudler," Berkeley Master Rogers said.

No longer having the availability of a Sudler fund, new campus publications are finding they have nowhere else to turn for funding. The reason for this is that guidelines for the Undergraduate Organization Funding Committee (UOFC) prevents the committee from funding publications "for fear of jeopardizing or even appearing to jeopardize a group's First Amendment rights." Without funds from Sudler or UOFC, publications must depend entirely on advertising in order to sustain themselves.

In addition to concerns about which projects receive funding and which projects do not, some students have questioned the way in which the funds are handled once they are received. For example, there have apparently been cases where students have applied for Sudler funds under the guise of holding an art exhibit but instead throw parties, cases where monies are used for materials in art classes instead of Sudler projects, and cases where recipients have purchased extravagantly expensive clothing for personal use. It is not clear what systems the Administration has in place to ensure that the funds are used appropriately. Nor is it clear what role student-assistants play in the initial selection process. Some administrators of the fund refused to comment on this issue, and a student employee of the Council of Masters was strictly forbidden to discuss these concerns.

IN SPITE OF THESE GLITCHES, STUDENTS OVERWH-elmingly support Sudler funds. They provide an opportunity to students who would not otherwise be able to express their creativity—nowhere in any of the literature on Sudler funding is there mention of content of the project playing a part in the decision-making process. And while some might say that the quality of the productions vary, the funds allow for enough shows to run so that people who really want to be a part of something can do so. When Picasso at the Lapin Agile goes up next semester, Holme and Peters will hope to have made a positive contribution to the cultural life of Yale by utilizing one of the University's best financial resources for the arts.

Graphic by Andrew Hamilton.

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