The Associated Students of Madison Student Council held a meeting Thursday to approve student-organization budgets recently proposed by the Student Services Finance Committee. However, the council could not approve any budgets, due to lack of attendance.
The Student Council heard debate over whether or not the ASM Finance Committee should consider funding the Poetry Slam Conference planned for this weekend. The conferences’ application to receive funding arrived nearly one month after the deadline, and ASM Finance Committee rejected it, claiming the organization should not receive special treatment.
“You cannot hold organizations to different standards; the application was late,” ASM Finance Committee vice chair Barb Kiernoziak said. “To show respect for the event, they should have applied earlier.”
Poetry Slam representatives cited difficulty in contacting guest poets as a major cause for the group’s late application and said the Finance Committee had made exceptions for other groups in the past.
One Student Council member said he understood the Finance Committee’s actions but commented that organizing events and scheduling guest speakers is often very difficult.
The Student Council was unable to come to a decision regarding the conference but passed a bill maintaining student organizations’ ability to pay student employees fixed, periodical sums.
A recent move made by University of Wisconsin administrators required student organizations to pay student employees hourly wages, and the bill passed by the Student Council rescinds that decision.
After several hours of recess, deliberation and re-recess, the council decided to adjourn due to a lack of sufficient member attendance.
“[Attendance] has been a problem almost every meeting … It is getting ridiculous,” ASM Student Council chair Austin Evans said. “We are supposed to be working for the students and right now we are not.”
The council began the meeting with debate over several issues, but when the agenda reached budget analysis and ratification, the group was unable to proceed. In order to vote on issues pertaining directly to the appropriation of students’ segregated fees, a quorum representing two-thirds of the council must be present, according to ASM Student Council bylaws.
A sufficient number of council members was achieved at several points during the meeting, but due to various members’ prearranged responsibilities, attendance fluctuated continually.
Whether the meeting will be rescheduled before winter break remains unclear.
During open forum, many members of SSFC and other organizations expressed their support of SSFC decisions and with the committee in general. Elizabeth Porior, Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Council representative, expressed trust in the committee’s decisions
“We are not the SSFC,” she said to other members of Student Council. “I am asking the council to respect what the SSFC has done.”
Committee member Lindsey Ourada also said SSFC had performed well and was very involved in the approval of budgets this year.
“We put a lot of time into these budgets,” Ourada said. “It is sad how much I know about them … I am taking 12 credits and hoping for [C’s].”
