The Associated Students of Madison’s reserve board decided it will give nearly $757,000 in segregated reserve fees back to University of Wisconsin students after denying two student organizations’ applications for a portion of the reserve funding Tuesday night.
ASM subtracted the proposed amount from the projected $1.2 million in total UW reserves. A referendum passed last year left allocation of the reserves in ASM’s control.
The ASM reserve board cut money from various student organizations’ reserve funds, including the General Student Service Fund and Child Care Tuition Assistance Program, subsidizing the money to be subtracted from next year’s segregated fees.
After each academic year, student organizations typically have money left over from the segregated-fee funding they receive in their yearly budgets.
In past years, administration has allowed reserve fees to build after each year, creating a large amount of reserve money for many organizations to utilize in case of a need for extra money.
Some groups have been allowed to amass large sums of reserves — sometimes reaching amounts of more than $500,000.
At the meeting Tuesday, ASM cut money from individual organizations’ reserves that exceeded their needs, leaving enough money for each organization to sufficiently operate without funding for five months.
“We made the decision to leave enough funding for five months [worth] of contingency operations in case something goes wrong,” ASM Finance Chair Barbara Kiernoziak said. “The rest will be used to offset [segregated] fees … throughout [next] year for all students.”
The total amount of UW reserve funding consists of all campus organizations’ leftover segregated fees.
After recently calling for students and student organizations to apply to receive reserve-fee cutbacks, ASM decided to give all of the reserve cuts back to students.
“I was really pleased,” Student Services Finance Committee Chair Janell Wise said in a telephone interview. “The best course we could have taken was to give the money back to the students.”
ASM had previously selected two organizations out of 28 applicants to present their ideas for funding at Tuesday’s meeting, but denied both for failure to meet the required criteria.
An Academic Affairs Committee textbook-rental program was denied after members failed to show its benefit to all UW students.
Also, a proposed new student print shop on the west side of campus was denied funding after ASM decided it was not critical to students.
ASM members decided Bob’s Copy Shop already met student demand in that area.
“The problem is, segregated student fees are already raising into the double digits,” Kiernoziak said. “Anytime you have a double-digit increase, it’s hard to justify allocation to these programs.”
