NEWS
ASM to refund $757,000 in segregated fee reserves
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Also by John Potratz:
- Sex and the City star shares views on life (September 30, 2005)
- ASM threatens lawsuit (October 21, 2005)
- ASM member resigns from position in protest (November 10, 2005)
- UW ranks No. 1 party school (September 1, 2005)
- Galloway's early visit spurs debate (September 14, 2005)
Related Stories:
- ASM considers excess funding (March 3, 2005)
- ASM saves more than $800,000 in fees (March 9, 2006)
- Students to decide where unspent segregated fees go (February 17, 2004)
- Students eat in front of activists (March 10, 2005)
- Seg fees might dip down (March 9, 2007)
by John Potratz
Wednesday, March 9, 2005
The Associated Students of Madison’s reserve board decided it will give nearly $757,000 in segregated reserve fees back to University of Wisconsin students after denying two student organizations’ applications for a portion of the reserve funding Tuesday night.
ASM subtracted the proposed amount from the projected $1.2 million in total UW reserves. A referendum passed last year left allocation of the reserves in ASM’s control.
The ASM reserve board cut money from various student organizations’ reserve funds, including the General Student Service Fund and Child Care Tuition Assistance Program, subsidizing the money to be subtracted from next year’s segregated fees.
After each academic year, student organizations typically have money left over from the segregated-fee funding they receive in their yearly budgets.
In past years, administration has allowed reserve fees to build after each year, creating a large amount of reserve money for many organizations to utilize in case of a need for extra money.
Some groups have been allowed to amass large sums of reserves — sometimes reaching amounts of more than $500,000.
At the meeting Tuesday, ASM cut money from individual organizations’ reserves that exceeded their needs, leaving enough money for each organization to sufficiently operate without funding for five months.
“We made the decision to leave enough funding for five months [worth] of contingency operations in case something goes wrong,” ASM Finance Chair Barbara Kiernoziak said. “The rest will be used to offset [segregated] fees … throughout [next] year for all students.”
The total amount of UW reserve funding consists of all campus organizations’ leftover segregated fees.
After recently calling for students and student organizations to apply to receive reserve-fee cutbacks, ASM decided to give all of the reserve cuts back to students.
“I was really pleased,” Student Services Finance Committee Chair Janell Wise said in a telephone interview. “The best course we could have taken was to give the money back to the students.”
ASM had previously selected two organizations out of 28 applicants to present their ideas for funding at Tuesday’s meeting, but denied both for failure to meet the required criteria.
An Academic Affairs Committee textbook-rental program was denied after members failed to show its benefit to all UW students.
Also, a proposed new student print shop on the west side of campus was denied funding after ASM decided it was not critical to students.
ASM members decided Bob’s Copy Shop already met student demand in that area.
“The problem is, segregated student fees are already raising into the double digits,” Kiernoziak said. “Anytime you have a double-digit increase, it’s hard to justify allocation to these programs.”
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 9:32am):
Good call, Barbara.
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 12:25pm):
Wow, miracles do happen!
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 1:13pm):
this article is a misrepresentation. Students won't be receiving a refund check, but the amount taken from reserves will be subtracted from the amount to be charged next year for seg fees.
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 2:45pm):
You're right, #3, but you'd be surprised to find how expensive it is to mail out 40,000 checks. I'll admit that it is a little unfair to graduating students, though.
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 3:16pm):
Oh, I wasn't criticizing the decision to not send refund checks. I was mostly critizing the very misleading language throughout this article.
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 3:22pm):
Feel free to direct deposit the entire sum into my account.
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 4:37pm):
Yeah, you have to wonder why they wouldn't figure out a way to send the checks to graduating seniors, as it seems a bit unfair that the kids coming in will get a discount off their bill that they never had to pay to begin with, and some kids who did pay, won't see a cent.
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 6:55pm):
The sure find ways to charge (electronically) for every move I make, and let's not even get started on parking tickets. Now all the sudden when the tides are turned and I'm actually _receiving_ money, ohh, then there's no way they have the means/technology to get it to me.
Anonymous (March 9, 2005 @ 6:59pm):
Does ASM have the means send money electronically?
Anonymous (March 10, 2005 @ 1:43am):
Refunding money to each individual isn't possible... not only would it be difficult, it's not even clear that it's legal. My understanding is that SSFC Chair Janelle Wise has indicated that she agrees that it's somewhat unfair that graduating seniors won't get anything back, but I guess that's the way it will have to be because calculating who deserves how much is a logistical nightmare.
Anonymous (March 10, 2005 @ 2:24am):
don't get too excited... you'll only be getting about 20 bucks back at most.
