The Student Assembly voted last night to pass Resolution 21, placing a moratorium on the creation of new student groups as it reviews and rethinks the Student Assembly Finance Commission’s funding procedures through the end of the semester. Any action denying the right to form recognized student organizations should be approached with great caution, and we hope the S.A. acted judiciously in reaching this decision. While reservations remain concerning the moratorium, we are encouraged by the Assembly’s initiative to reform the SAFC.

That Cornell provides an environment on campus open to all ideas and organizations — no matter how obscure or uncommon — should be a mark of pride for all students. The SAFC has contributed to this environment through its objective approach to organizational funding. In recent years, however, the ease with which SAFC funding is achieved has resulted in too much of a good thing.

Indiscriminate apportionment has caused an overabundance of student groups, many of which partially or entirely overlap in terms of organizational goals. This has led to inefficiencies in the dispersal of students’ activity fees.

Resolution 21’s sponsors have argued that the S.A. needs to develop a more nuanced approach to its funding operations, and its passage will allow Assembly officers to sit down and thoroughly examine, group by group, exactly where these inefficiencies occur. This process has the potential to yield a greater understanding of how to manage the Student Activity Fee. The S.A. has acted wisely in taking such a necessary measure.

However, our apprehensions concerning Resolution 21 stem not from its central tenet — to clean up the SAFC funding process — but from its decision to impose the moratorium.

Dissenting voters on the S.A. voiced concern about the resolution, arguing that the halt on the creation of new student groups goes against the University’s mission. We share these concerns and wonder if the freeze is entirely necessary to accomplish the resolution’s primary goal.

Hopefully, over the course of the semester, the newly formed Assembly task force is able to identify a model for funding that allocates activity fees in a more efficient way. While the moratorium might be more about hype than necessity, the SAFC funding process is a real cause for concern, and an audit of recognized student organizations is an important initiative.

If they can pull it off without hindering the development of new student groups in the future, then Resolution 21 will have been a success.