Many U of T frosh may remember the recent Orientation Week events as a good time.

But Oasis, the party put on by the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC), is leaving behind a sizeable hangover in the form of a $37,000 loss.

And the red ink could gush: if SAC doesn’t get funding from the administration, Oasis could end up losing more than $107,000.

SAC board members are complaining that the loss could result in budget cuts to their commissions, which put on events and provide services for students.

“They paid for all kinds of booze and hotel stuff, and plane tickets,” said a SAC director who spoke on condition of anonymity.

SAC spent “$8,000 extra on plane tickets,” the board member added, noting that the money was put towards paying for items on the event’s entertainment riders — the perks and extras performers receive, and the food and alcohol put out for them in their dressing rooms.

Another SAC board member said the loss would harm SAC’s services to students, and added that there was no firm plan to make up for the lost money.

“It would hurt SAC’s ability to perform effectively for students,” the first SAC director said.

Oasis was supposed to receive money from a student referendum that collected $1 from each student for a corporate-free orientation.

But the presence of companies like Daimler-Chrysler, Look Communications, and Microsoft means that the event may have been in violation of the referendum, meaning that the event’s losses could reach six figures.

“There is a chance they lost the levy money,” the board member noted.

But SAC said the loss on Oasis was “money well spent,” according to John Lea, vice-president of operations.

Lea said he is trying to make sure SAC gets the $70,000 referendum money from the administration: “We’re in talks with Jim Delaney [of Student Affairs].”

“It’s hopefully on its way, I’m calling every day,” Lea added.

“We got corporations that were giving gifts to the students. No-one was doing any hard selling,” Lea said.

Lea said planning Oasis was difficult because of the large scale of the event and the tight timeframe: “Riders weren’t planned out too much. We had to make decisions very quickly.”

He said the loss could end up hurting SAC programs.: “It does put commission budgets lower than last year, but for good reason,” adding that the SAC executive had campaigned to spend more money on Oasis and the clubs commission because those services had a more direct impact on students.

“Last year had some big-budget flops, like Optic, that didn’t go off,” Lea said, adding that at least 6,000 frosh enjoyed the Oasis party.

Lea noted that SAC did find creative ways to save money – after the concerts, he got U of T engineers to clean up the lawn in exchange for his signature on a piece of paper saying SAC thought former Ontario Premier Mike Harris “wasn’t that bad.” Engineers needed the signature for a frosh week scavenger hunt.