The Student Services Finance Committee modified and then approved the Multicultural Student Coalition budget at $443,223, down from their original request of $673,984.69 for the 2004-05 fiscal year.

This amount is less than MCSC’s current 2003-04 working budget of $466,050. The major cuts to MCSC’s budget come from the salary, travel, office supplies, food and computer line items. Smaller reductions came from printing requests and program supplies.

The decision of the MCSC proposal came after 13 people spoke on behalf of the organization, five of whom were members of the Madison Observer, a biweekly student publication sponsored by MCSC with the goal of improving campus climate and promoting awareness of all cultures present at the University of Wisconsin.

This was followed by committee members noting their dissatisfaction with recent meetings, as Rep. Maryam Ashraf attributed her relative quietness in past meetings to a variety of frustrations.

The committee was also scheduled to have its budget decision today, but that was tabled to Wednesday’s meeting due to a Student Judiciary case that involved SSFC Chair Aaron Werner. The case suspended fiscal decisions because most committee representatives went to the case to either listen or to speak at open forum.

The Legal Information Center, a student organization that informs students of the legal situations that can arise from causes ranging from underage drinking tickets to quibbles with landlords, charged Werner with inadequately informing the group on when segregated-fee eligibility forms were due.

This case is currently on appeal; Werner was found not guilty of the charges and said he is surprised an appeal was even accepted on the merits of the LIC’s case.

Committee Rep. Ben Hawke said he realized some might question the fairness of budgetary decisions on Student Judiciary’s proposal, but he allayed concerns of a conflict of interest regarding Student Judiciary’s budget.

“I don’t think there’s any conflict of viewpoint-neutrality,” he said.