John Wiley will be the first chancellor in history to use his power to change the allocable segregated-fees budget proposed by the current student government.
Wiley is expected to outline a $140,000 cut in the fees students pay to support student organizations as part of annual tuition in a letter to Associated Students of Madison chair Jessica Miller tomorrow. Miller said her prior discussions with Wiley indicate he favors limiting the increase of the budget to 10 percent, in order to match the maximum tuition increase for 2002-2003.
“The effect of the cut he is issuing is to bring the increase from last year to under 10 percent because tuition is capped at 10 percent,” Miller said.
Some student government leaders, like Student Services Finance Committee vice chair Roman Patzner, expected the chancellor to mandate an across-the-board cut to the groups ASM allocates budgets for, but Miller said he will not. The budget ASM proposed was more than $2.8 million, making the cut roughly 5 percent.
Patzner said the student government, if given the responsibility for dividing the chancellor’s cut as expected, is likely to approve a uniform percent reduction.
“We have already gone through micromanaging each of the groups’ budgets and I personally don’t want to have to do it again,” he said.
Finance Committee Chair Rebecca Pifer said an across-the-board cut would not be appropriate considering Wiley’s motivation for altering the budget.
“This is a cut that is not targeted at a specific group, it is caused by a larger state budget situation and tuition situation,” Pifer said.
Miller could not predict whether the full council would favor a uniform cut or reviewing the budgets of organizations like the bus pass or the Multicultural Student Coalition, but said “there are pros and cons to each system.”
The ASM Bus Pass receives the most allocable funds, but may be exempt from cuts due to existing contracts.
“Well, we could cut the salary of the bus pass staff member, but that’s pretty out of the question, too,” Miller said.
