Associated Students of Madison's main funding arm approved
budgets for several large student organizations Thursday evening at their
meeting at Union South.

The MultiCultural Student Coalition joined the Campus
Women's Center and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Student
Council awaiting a decision on their proposed budgets by the Student Services
Finance Committee.

MCSC was granted approximately $345,000 for the 2007-08
academic school year, according to SSFC chair Alex Gallagher — the largest of
any group that receives student segregated funds.

Among the issues discussed was MCSC's request for funds to
be used for semester staff training and a program called "Dating, Mating and
Relating," which addresses issues individuals may be face while in an
interracial relationship.

Also discussed last night was the budget decision for the
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences' Student Council.

The committee approved funding for a program for graduate
students to mentor undergraduate students who are involved in the school.

Tanya Zimmerman, president of the CALS Student Council, said
receiving funding for this program was a huge step for them and will greatly
improve the CALS program.

"The main interests that we asked for this year is for
graduate students to help facilitate communication between different groups of
students interested in agricultural and really all over the sciences,"
Zimmerman said. "So [it is] kind of serving as a central point for collecting
new opportunities and collaborative efforts."

Zimmerman said her organization did lose some leadership
programming for the next year, but was able "to retain and add some movements
for programming for this year."

SSFC also discussed 2007-08 budget decisions for the Student Leadership
Program, Vets for Vets and the Campus Women’s Center. Those budgets will be
decided at SSFC's next meeting.