At the Student Services Finance Committee meeting Monday, At-Large Representative Matt Modell surprised his fellow committee members by announcing his resignation after 21 months.
Modell resigned because he said he was “sick of working on a committee that completely and utterly fails to represent the student body of this campus.”
In a letter read at the open forum, Modell explained he felt he had done all he could as an SSFC member, and that in the first year of his term, he upheld his promise not to raise allocable segregated fees for the students of UW-Madison. However, he said he had fallen short of keeping his promise this year.
“We have failed to keep any reasonable cap on what are now out-of-control, skyrocketing student taxes,” Modell said. “The battle has still been challenging [but] things could have been worse without our strong will and determination.”
Modell often had disagreements with other members of the committee, yet many of these members were disappointed in his resignation.
“I respect Modell very much,” said SSFC member Scott Spector. “I disagreed with his tactics and methods at times, but he was definitely an ardent supporter of the ‘silent majority’ that other College Republicans have referred to on this campus.”
SSFC Chair Lamont Smith said he doubts Modell’s resignation means he will disappear from the campus political scene.
“I think it’s interesting that Matt’s come so far and decided to quit, but I don’t think we’ve heard the last of Matt Modell,” Smith said.
Also at the meeting, the Child Care Tuition Assistance Program presented their budget for the 2002-03 school year. This program provides supplements for students with children, for whom further education might be unavailable due to the prohibitive cost of child care.
CCTAP requested $629,200 for the year, but also filed an addendum for an extra $25,000 to explore the possibilities of providing evening child care for students who are taking night classes or have regular study groups.
The ASM Bus Pass program requested $1,648,500 for the 2002-03 school year, most of which is used to supplement the free bus service provided to students on campus. Madison Metro has a three-year contract with ASM, providing service for $1,383,000 annually.
Decisions on these budgets will be made at Wednesday’s SSFC meeting.
