[media-credit name=’PATRICK STATZ-BOYER/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]There will continue to be no cap on student organization travel budgets after a contentious Associated Students of Madison Finance Committee meeting Tuesday.
The committee considered changing its criteria for travel grants but rejected proposed changes, opting to keep the current policies and procedures in place.
"We wanted to spread the grants out among more organizations and to give us a little more leeway to choose [grant recipients] without going overboard," committee representative Tim Fung said.
Fung proposed capping the amount any individual student organization could receive for travel grants, but his proposal failed by a vote of 3-1.
Fung said the cap was necessary as a means to keep committee members in check but felt optimistic about the semester for the ASM Finance Committee.
"I think we will do a good job at keeping grants as a reasonable cost," Fung said.
The committee currently has $12,000 to allocate for the remainder of the semester, Finance Chair Sree Atluru said, and the committee wanted to determine what criteria members follow when deciding whether to allocate funding for student organization travel.
Committee members discussed the importance of each travel request having an educational component and sufficient price quotes for travel and supplies and the need to increase debate on future grant proposals.
Fung offered suggestions to save groups money, including staying in the cheapest hotels available and using discount airlines.
"Every group is looking for ways to cut costs and not ask for excessive money," Fung said.
According to Atluru, the meeting also served as a means to see committee members' individual interpretations of grant proposals, which ultimately affected each committee member's vote.
"I think that it's important for any student organization to do, especially a finance committee," Atluru said. "It's important to talk about these things when the semester starts, when everything is fresh."
ASM Chair Dylan Rath supported the finance committee's review of grant criteria, saying organizations throughout the semester requested much more money for travel than is available.
Due to the large variety of travel grants, Rath said he didn't see the necessity for a travel cap, because it's hard to tell how effective a cap would be.
Though the committee voted against making any amendments to their current policies and procedures, it said committee members should be reminded of the current grant criteria.
Atluru expressed her opposition to amending the policies and procedures and said the current implications are "fine."
Due to a Financial Committee procedural process, approval of the policy must pass at a second meeting before any financial decisions are made. The second hearing is scheduled for Sunday.
"We need to remember it's students' money, and we need to be responsible for it," Fung said.