With the end of the Associated Students of Madison session on the horizon, Student Service Finance Committee ironed out a number of issues during their Monday meeting, including chair stipends and the Campus Services Fund.
SSFC Chair Brandon Williams highlighted some of the end of the year items he said he hoped would be approved, including finalizing the ASM bylaws, which would provide a method for deciding chair stipends each year.
During the last Student Council meeting held last month, the stipend bylaw decision was pushed back to the April 7 meeting in order to create more checks against a future council member arbitrarily increasing their salary.
If passed at this week’s Student Council meeting, the bylaw changes would require any increase in a stipend more than 5 percent to be voted on by the Student Council.
A number of members at Student Council expressed discontent at what they felt was a lack of checks on the original bylaws during the last Student Council meeting.
“I think a lot of people forgot what the bylaw changes were all about. The point is to not spend hours debating what to pay ourselves,” Williams said.
The meeting immediately broke into subcommittees to discuss the Campus Services Fund.
The subcommittee lead by SSFC Secretary Matt Manes discussed how students at the University of Wisconsin could propose funding services through the Campus Services Fund, which would allow any student at UW to bring forth an idea for a service to the council.
Manes said any student who wanted to have a service approved by council would have to lobby to a member of Student Council, who could then make a proposal.
SSFC Rep. Grant Smith said he felt there should not be more than one member of council proposing a service because too many proposals would clog a meeting, preventing it from running on time.
Manes disagreed. The point, he said, is to not make it hard for students to get a proposed service to council.
“This is the most important thing council can do, which is institute services for students,” Manes said.
Manes said the Campus Services Fund will not come into a vote this session, adding he hopes it will be implemented in the fall.
