In a meeting that gave way to tensions between representatives, members of Student Council approved changes to eligibility requirements for student organizations but struck down amendments to the services provided by student government.
The Associated Students of Madison approved changes to the eligibility requirements for student organizations of the General Student Services Fund, which funds direct services to the student body using segregated fees.
Student Services Finance Committee representative Rae Lymer said only a few changes to the requirements were necessary to make the definition of a direct service clearer and more concise for student organizations.
She said the changes included clarification that a group receiving funds must clearly and completely demonstrate their direct services and the primary focus of those direct services must aim to benefit all UW students.
SSFC also changed the bylaws to require groups to have a written mission statement outlining its direct services.
ASM Chair Brandon Williams said he agreed with changing the definition of events to receive funding, which would specify a program occurring on a specific date set by the group to provide the direct service.
“This is to avoid social party-type events from being events that receive GSSF funds when they shouldn’t,” he said.
Williams also said he wanted to make sure GSSF eligibility requirements still included the bylaw specifying that 75 percent of individuals benefiting from the services must be UW students.
The council unanimously approved the changes to the eligibility requirements bylaws.
The Student Council also weighed the potential benefits of creating a Sustainability Committee for the fall semester.
The proposed committee would work with student organizations, administration and other ASM committees to implement various sustainability projects and policies.
University Affairs Chair Carl Fergus said although there are currently several organizations throughout the campus that advocate sustainability, ASM could work in collaboration with these organizations.
Representative Sarah Neibart said it is important for ASM to institutionalize issues that are essential to student life, such as sustainability.
“For ASM to have this higher authority as an umbrella, it could give way to other organizations on campus to further their sustainability work,” Neibart said.
Other council members, such as Shared Governance Director Melissa Hanley, said promoting sustainability on campus could be accomplished without creating an entire new committee and researching sustainability could prove just as effective as a new campaign.
“My gut instinct is never to create more ASM committees than we already have, since some could argue we’ve already stretched ourselves thin,” Hanley said.
The council will continue debate on the Sustainability Committee at next week’s meeting.
SSFC Chair Matt Manes also introduced changes to the Campus Services Fund which he said removed all of the language related to student organizations, bylaws he said have caused controversy in the past.
Manes said the services to students would be provided by ASM or another contracted organization, such as in the case of the Rape Crisis Center. He said the change would hold student groups completely neutral.
Manes said the changes also provide a more concrete framework to bring an idea for a service into reality for students on campus and would allow for initiatives to be taken up at any point during the year. This would eliminate the practice of “throwing money in the budget” without a specific purpose and allocating funds without follow through on proposals.
Amid rising frustration among members of the council, representatives initially voted down the changes but passed the measure following a motion to reconsider the proposal.
Manes said the changes will need to be passed by the Council one more time before being formally added to the bylaws.
–Katherine Krueger contributed to this report.
