The Justice

This past week, the Union Senate voted to cut the budget for the annual Midnight Buffet from $5,000 to $3,000, citing current economic hardships and the need for such events to remain "cost-beneficial." While this editorial board supports this prudent action, we believe that the event could have been cut entirely. It's true that the Midnight Buffet has been a staple of the final exam period and is welcomed by many tired and overworked students, but it is a luxury we could certainly do without.

Without taking the budgetary scalpel to every event on campus that features food and music, it is important to note that regardless of the Midnight Buffet's status as an established tradition, it is neither an event of cultural appreciation and remembrance, à la Culture X, nor an artistic endeavor like Liquid Latex. With talk of fiscal wisdom cluttering conversation campuswide, it seems that such an indulgent event should be the first item cut from the list.

Though $3,000 is a small sum in the scope of the University's larger budget crisis, the money available to students for extracurricular activities is in far shorter supply as evidenced by Finance Board's Regular Marathon results this semester. The sum saved by canceling Midnight Buffet could be used to fund other clubs by being contributed to the pool the F-Board draws from for Emergency Request meetings, or it could have been used to increase the resources used toward other Union initiatives such as DeisBikes or used to restore a steady flow of paper towels to our restrooms.

Midnight Buffet has always been a fun event for students to come together in a common love of pizza, doughnuts, Tiki House cuisine and, of course, the chance to win free T-shirts simply by attending. In years past, Brandeis students have enjoyed the chance to let their hair down for a night of frivolity at the hands of the Union Government Fund.

However, in light of the University's current hardships, it is not perhaps in the best taste to continue one of the less characteristic and unique of our coveted campus traditions.

Only two weeks ago, this editorial board cautioned against spending $3,000 on a cell phone signal amplifier for Usdan at a time when contract professors are concerned for their employment. To spend an equal sum on what is essentially a party-something that doesn't endure, like the signal amplifier-leads the student body further into fiscal irresponsibility.

All this is not a condemnation of Midnight Buffet. Perhaps this fall, after the Rose Art Museum's Warhol is in the hands of a Russian collector, the University will be flush with contract professors and $3,000 sums alike. Until then, we students ought to engage in some of the same belt-tightening that our administrators imposed on University spending several months ago.

The party planned to relieve our stress before finals can wait until we can honestly afford it.

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