Chancellor John Wiley’s mandated $140,000 segregated-fee cut has left student groups across campus wondering how they will be affected.
The Associated Students of Madison has yet to decide how the cuts will be dealt with, but early indications suggest they will come across the board.
“It’s really up in the air in terms of what’s actually going to happen,” said Victoria Bomben, Staff Finance Coordinator for the Campus Women’s Center.
Student groups are playing the waiting game in anticipation of an announcement of where exactly the cuts will come from.
“Right now we are just waiting,” said Heidi Kong, chair of the Asian and Pacific American Council. “It’s basically just out of our hands. We are waiting to hear back from them.”
Kong said her organization requested $211,500 for next year, and she does not know how they will deal with the cuts.
“These are resources we really needed, so to cut back will be hard to do,” Kong said.
Theresa Vidaurri, co-chair of the Multicultural Student Coalition, said she hopes ASM does not make specific cuts for each student organization.
“It would symbolize a lot if they cut from specific budgets because [our budget] is a big controversy,” Vidaurri said.
Despite anxiety, Bomben said she thinks ASM will make the right decision on where the cuts should come from.
“I think I trust the student government to work out what the best way (is) for this to happen,” she said.
Jessica Harry, chair of GUTS Tutorial, agreed.
“Any cut is going to impact services provided to students, but I’m confident they’ll take every different viewpoint into consideration before making the decision,” she said. “They’re tightening budgets all over the country, so everybody is going to feel it.”