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SSFC reduces DEP budgetary request
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by Andriy Pazuniak
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
After making significant cuts to the Diversity Education Program's budget and granting complete funding to Sex Out Loud, the Student Services Finance Committee ended Monday's meeting with another budget decision still on the table.
DEP came before SSFC requesting nearly $450,000 in funding from student segregated fees, but the committee quickly trimmed the final budget by more than $40,000.
In doing so, SSFC completely zero-funded a paid-assistant position for a DEP-sponsored class and DEP's professional staff-recruitment budget. DEP's program budget was also cut considerably.
The debate over the paid-assistant position centered on whether it was fair to students to have their segregated fees go towards paying a classroom assistant when the class could not be considered open to all students. The class in question requires students to send in an application before allowance to enroll, which many SSFC representatives believed made the class "exclusive" to a majority of students on campus.
"I don't feel it's fair to pay for [an assistant for a class] when it's not open to all students," SSFC Representative Barbara Kernoziak said after introducing the amendment to cut the $16,000 position from DEP's budget. "When a class is only 20 to 30 people in size, when you have to apply to be in it, it's an exclusive service."
However, DEP Director Bill Hebert said the committee misinterpreted the role of the assistant's position within the program and to the University of Wisconsin campus as a whole.
"[The assistant position] is a nonteaching position," Hebert said of the assistant position staff member, which would have been expected to serve as a classroom assistant for the curriculum and instruction course, "Theatre of the Oppressed."
Despite cuts to his program's budget, Hebert said he was satisfied with SSFC's overall allocation.
"A lot of stuff was fair," Herbert said after the final decision. "[The committee] was well-researched and fair to a point, but they worked hard and did the best they could."
Sex Out Loud representatives also left Monday's meeting feeling satisfied with SSFC's budget decisions after the committee granted SOL its entire requested budget. The proposed budget included increases to allow the organization to supply more than 5,000 condom cases — used to store condoms to prevent damaging tears and pokes — and thousands more safe-sex supplies to the UW student body.
"I'm thrilled with the result," Project Coordinator for SOL Dan Semo said after Monday's decision.
Semo added SOL plans to use the funding to increase SOL's educational outreach to the university campus and increase the amount of safe-sex programming possibilities.
Though a final decision on the Asian Pacific American Council's budget was not made Monday, SSFC already made a significant cut of $38,000 to its proposed salaries budget, finding the council did not need to pay employees to work for so many hours.
"It is effective, it's very cost-effective, without cutting the organization's legs out from under it," SSFC Representative Adam Schlicht said.
APAC will have to wait until Thursday for a final decision.
