The University of Wisconsin Student Services Finance Committee finished deciding budgets for the fiscal 2006-07 year for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan at an emergency meeting Friday afternoon.

The final budget for CALS was approved at approximately $26,000 after the committee made significant cuts to speaker funds for leadership activities and supply funds for the student picnic.

"[CALS] should utilize campus resources," SSFC member Adam Schlicht said regarding the cut to the speaker funds. "There are many organizations on campus that can build leadership."

Representative Zach Frey agreed and said the committee funds some of the organizations that could provide leadership-building services.

The committee also cut office-supply funds in half for the CALS student picnic, a resource fair organized for the college's students.

"Fifty dollars (in office supplies) is pretty significant for each organization," Schlicht said.

CALS Treasurer Craig Kohn said he was generally pleased with the committee's decisions and the final budget.

"I feel they applied the same scrutiny to our budget that they did to others," he said. "The cuts they made were pretty justified."

He said he was only concerned with the $1,000 cut to the budget's in-service honoraria because CALS plans to fly in a speaker from California.

"We'll just have to find other sources of funding," he said. "We're going to have to make some adjustments, but they did a good job."

Upon deciding MEChA's final budget at about $53,700, Schlicht said making any significant cuts to the organization's originally proposed budget would be ridiculous.

"I believe they really spent a lot of time trying to prioritize (their budget)," he said.

SSFC's only change to the proposed budget was a $600 cut to the reception held for graduating Chicano students.

"For an event like this, it's more of a personal benefit and not something that benefits this campus," Frey said.

The committee spent time discussing Interim Associate Dean of Students Elton Crim's comments about the appropriation of student segregated fees in the previous committee meeting.

SSFC members specifically addressed their budget decisions to the University of Wisconsin Roman Catholic Foundation.

"If we wanted to see if we were doing this right, then we'd have to reconsider all of [the budgets]," SSFC member Jennifer Knox said.

Some committee members encouraged a reconsideration of UWRCF's budget, but the motion did not pass.

"It's ridiculous to suggest that the work we put in was not legitimate," Schlicht said. "I don't think we looked at it any other way than any other organization."

After the meeting, SSFC Chair Rachelle Stone expressed her satisfaction with the committee's work over the past three months.

"I think the committee did a good job," she said. "[Committee members] learned a lot and they had a lot to deal with."

Representative Kellie Sanders, in her first session with SSFC, agreed with Stone and said the committee spent quality time with each budget.

"I learned it's a lot about stating and backing up your opinion," she said. "It's not about getting a general consensus; it's about getting a majority vote."

The Associated Students of Madison will review SSFC's budget decisions at a future council meeting.