In a hurried meeting of the University of Wisconsin student government Wednesday night, student leaders received extensive allocation procedures training in preparation for ruling on the final appeal for funding the Multicultural Student Coalition to be held today.
The Associated Students of Madison also underwent a three-hour long training on viewpoint neutrality and eligibility in preparation for a special session tonight to make the final decision on eligibility for MCSC after interim Chancellor David Ward remanded the decision back to the Associated Students of Madison.
The training was mandatory for all members. Any member who left or was not in attendance but still was present to vote on the final funding decision opened himself or herself up to a potential lawsuit and making their votes ineligible.
“I know the timeline for this is really difficult. I get that this is really stressful and requires a lot of training in a short amount of time,” Chair Allie Gardner said. “I want to point out … while I respect the decision of both [Student Services Finance Committee] and Student Judiciary, this eligibility decision is an entirely new one.”
The training included presentations from SSFC Advisor Joanna Gurstelle on definitions that might help members ultimately decide whether a group is eligible for General Student Services Funding and the importance of remaining viewpoint neutral in all funding decisions.
It also included a mock eligibility hearing, in which Gurstelle pretended to present a motion for eligibility for an imagined magical defense organization, in a reference to the Harry Potter series of young adult novels.
After the training, members had an hour and half left in the meeting to debate items that, if not voted on, would need to be voted on in Thursday’s special meeting or another special session before the agenda items would be dismissed.
However, after originally passing the Finance Committee’s recommendations for campus organizations grants in a 16 to five vote, the Council reconsidered and tabled the motion until tonight’s meeting after a concern was raised about the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Publications Committee budget, which Rep. Mudit Kackar said should be funded through WUD as non-allocable through operation events.
Rep. Cale Plamann voted to table the grants in both debates, saying he was uncomfortable with passing them without the chair or representatives of the finance committee present at the meeting.
“I’ve had some positive and some skeptical reactions to this, and I am just incredibly worried about voting on this without anyone from Finance Committee here,” Plamann said. “I just think this is something really, really worrying if we continue with this.”
The Student Council also passed a contract and Academic Support Services Agreement for Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group, originally passed by SSFC in its Monday meeting, to allow contracting for the group’s professional staff, which members agreed was required for the organization’s campus mission.
The council also passed the Student Transportation Board’s budget. The budget includes funding for the Safe Arrival For Everyone taxicab service. Funding for the group was originally cut by the committee, despite concerns that UW’s Transportation Services would leave control and funding of the program up to students to make up for a budget shortfall.
