The Multicultural Student Coalition will likely receive significantly less than the nearly $1 million they requested from the Student Services Finance Committee, although no final budget was approved by press time.
After hours of back-and-forth deliberation, SSFC members overwhelmingly expressed support for the MCSC’s goal of launching a cross-cultural educational campaign, but differed sharply over the means for achieving that goal.
“I’d like to see this work for a year before we fully fund all these positions,” said committee member Scott Spector.
Most SSFC members agreed that MCSC’s $977,418 request, which will be paid for by student fees, was too much, too fast.
“I believe we should start out slow,” said committee member Rob Staude. “Maybe in a few years they might be ready for something like this.”
MCSC co-chair Tshaka Barrows was on the defensive at the hearing, addressing criticism that his budget was too ambitious.
“We’re trying to create a group that’s going to have a broad impact on a university that needs that impact,” Barrows said. “We’re cautious to the fact that it’s a lot of money, and we’re trying to be flexible with [SSFC.] But it’s a serious request for a serious service.”
While most greeted the budget with skepticism, a handful of committee members were eager to pass the budget as proposed, saying students needed to compensate for the administration’s failures at addressing campus climate.
“You’re trying to give a service to 40,000 students. You can’t do that with [only a few] people,” said Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Carl Camacho “The nature of how we’re looking at this proposal needs to be different.”
MCSC is proposing to expand its organization to 10 unique departments ranging from finance to human resources and development to management of information. While MCSC had originally requested that each department be staffed by at least four students, SSFC members agreed to limit the increases in the MCSC’s staff.
After brief negotiations with current MCSC staff members and heated internal debate, SSFC moved to let MCSC hire 24 students at $9 an hour and two co-chairs of the coalition at $10 an hour. MCSC had originally requested 44 staff members at $10 an hour.
SSFC members also expressed unhappiness with issues surrounding MCSC’s requests for new office space, furniture and equipment.
SSFC member Brad Ladwig questioned whether moving off campus was a good idea for a group looking to expand its campus presence.
“How many students are they going to be able to reach out to if they remove themselves from campus?” Ladwig asked. “Granted, they have a great service, but they’ve just budgeted poorly.”
The Memorial Union granted SSFC’s request to remain open indefinitely, so as of press time no budget decisions were final.
Before considering MCSC’s request, SSFC heard the budget requests of the Asian Pacific American Council and Wunk Sheek. The committee will deliberate and decide the budgets of the two student of color organizations Wednesday.
