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Committee finalizes ASM budget

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by Andriy Pazuniak

Friday, January 27, 2006

The Student Services Finance Committee approved the Associated Students of Madison internal budget Thursday.

After making $22,800 in cuts to hourly salaries for ASM diversity liaison positions and an assortment of lesser items, SSFC passed the $733,850 budget.

The diversity liaison position has been oft criticized within ASM recently, according to both SSFC and ASM representatives.

"The [diversity liaison] positions have been severely neglected and a waste of money in the past," SSFC Vice Chair Eric Saar said. "Students completely do not do their jobs and get paid for it."

ASM representatives said they agreed with the cuts made by SSFC.

"I don't think there's a lot of justification for the [liaison] position," ASM Chair Eric Varney said.

Among the programs that survived the SSFC budget-decision process, ASM representatives said they were most excited about a pilot textbook-rental program.

According to ASM representatives, the $80,100 pilot program would allow students to purchase a book and then return it at the end of the semester for a full refund minus a "small rental" fee.

ASM representatives said they hoped to put the program in place on a trial basis for "one or two" classes next year.

"I am happy with the decisions they made, mostly because they kept the textbook-rental program," ASM Academic Affairs Chair Stephanie Biese said.

SSFC representatives proposed other cuts, but none garnered much support.

Among the most controversial proposals was a $36,500 cut to salaries for ASM leadership positions, completely zero-funding the line item.

SSFC representative David Lapidus, who made the proposal, questioned the ethics of a student-government body setting salaries for its own positions.

Lapidus told the committee he hoped the cut would lead to a new process for determining salaries for ASM leadership positions, which would include student body input.

However, the proposal did not gain any vocal support from other SSFC representatives seated at the table.

"This proposal is, by far, unquestionably, ridiculously shocking," SSFC representative Adam Schlicht said. "By us having this discussion is an accountability measure. We are the checks and balances."

Other proposals included cutting $2,000 from the pool the Finance Committee could allocate for event grants to student organizations.