The Student Services Finance Committee approved one 2005-06 budget and pushed the decision of another major allocation in a meeting lasting nearly four hours Monday night.
The lengthiest portion of the meeting was the debate regarding the Multi-Cultural Student Coalition’s budget request, which experienced several cuts but failed to reach final approval when the meeting adjourned.
The pending amendments included cuts approximating $56,000 in the programming, computers, printing, Madison Observer newspaper funding and staff salary segments of the budget.
MCSC requested $482,322 in its budgetary hearing Sept. 23.
As the meeting neared five hours in length, debate grew a little more heated.
“We don’t need any more [viewpoint-neutral] violations … we are running out of steam … [and] need to look at these budgets and come back to do good work Thursday,” SSFC member Barbara Kiernoziak said.
The committee, which adjourned mid-debate of a budget amendment, will continue where it left off Thursday evening.
Executive staff member of MCSC Roberto Paredes said he thought some of the cuts were unfair.
“The committee was compromising with each other rather than looking at the actual functions of [MCSC],” Paredes said, noting he would have liked to get everything done in Monday’s meeting.
The Legal Information Center budgetary decision was made earlier in the meeting. The LIC received no cuts from their original budget of $17,797.
The approval was decided after a proposed amendment to cut $760 and debate that followed.
UW junior Lisa Valenti-Hein, the LIC office manager, said the decision was smoother than she thought it was going to be.
“I’m impressed by the knowledge of the SSFC. They raised all the points [during debate] I would have,” Valenti-Hein said. “We are grateful.”
Two groups, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) and Adventure Leadership Program, also presented their 2005-06 budgets, which will be decided in Thursday’s meeting.
MEChA requested $48,846, which is approximately $3,000 less than what they received a year ago. ALPS requested $113,294, approximately $5,500 more than last year.
