Chancellor John Wiley's non-voting delegate to the Student Services Finance Committee raised concern over whether student segregated-fee money is being properly appropriated by the committee during its meeting Thursday.

Before SSFC cut more than $60,000 from the proposed budget of the University of Wisconsin Roman Catholic Foundation, Interim Associate Dean of Students Elton Crimm asked committee members to think about if the organizations they have granted funding to are truly student organizations serving the UW campus or are more broadly based non-profit organizations. And, if so, he asked whether it was appropriate for them to be receiving funding from UW students.

"When do you cross the line from being a student organization to being a non-profit organization?" Crimm asked the committee. "I fear that organizations that are more broadly defined, that I personally feel blur that line, see [SSFC] as an easy mark to receive funding."

Emphasizing that it was an issue that should be left up to the student body to discuss and ultimately resolve, Crimm questioned whether organizations should receive money from student segregated fees simply because they partly serve the UW campus.

"When the Red Cross serves a population, they don't get funding from the population they serve. They draw funding through fundraising from other populations in order to provide services to another population," Crimm said. "So just because an organization is serving students doesn't necessarily make it a student organization."

Crimm said part of the problem is that because many organizations think their group benefits students, their funding should come from the students they serve.

In support of SSFC, Representative Adam Schlicht said many organizations have received funding because of the services they provide to the UW campus.

"There are student groups that are not direct student organizations but received funding for providing students services," Schlicht said, adding his concern over the timing of Crimm's comments.

"I'm not sure it was the most appropriate moment to say that," he added.

Crimm admitted his comments could have come at a better time, but said he wanted students to begin having the discussion and thought it was something to consider while debating organizations' budgets.

"While it's certainly a question about eligibility, it's also a question about the appropriateness of some of the requests for particular line items," Crimm said. "To fund a line item that is supporting something that this non-profit agency is doing or using for their broader purpose would possibly be inappropriate."

In their budget decision for UWRCF, SSFC representatives cut the foundation's budget by more than $60,000, with the largest cut being $35,000 from UWRCF's rent and utility payments for its offices. SSFC did not finish deciding on UWRCF's entire budget by press time, however.

Citing a 2004 memorandum from UW, SSFC representatives said the organizations could not use segregated fees for "improvements, maintenance and overhead expenses in non-university facilities," such as UWRCF's offices.

Using the same memorandum as a reference, SSFC also made cuts to the foundation's janitorial supplies budget, as well as various cuts to requests for food and beverage.

SSFC also ruled on the budget for Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow, minimum-funding the group in a contentious late-night decision.