The Student Services Finance Committee decided to postpone
the proposed $1,154,020 Associated Students of Madison Internal Budget Thursday
night.

SSFC spent five hours reviewing the budget that has been laid out by ASM for
the 2008-09 school year.

?The ASM as an organization has its own budget,? SSFC chair Alex Gallagher
said. ?The budget includes all committees, staff, campaigns and grants, but it
doesn?t include the SSFC, the Student Judiciary or the bus passes.?

This is the second time the committee has addressed this particular budget.
SSFC reviewed it at their last meeting for the fall semester, Gallagher said.
However, the committee members were not satisfied with the amount of
information produced, and sent the budget back for more justification.

Several members of the committee, including Adam Porton and Vice Chair Katrina
Flores, were concerned with the evaluation of ASM.

?An important component of budgeting is using previous information and using
that to reflect on how to build an organization off of that,? Gallagher said.

SSFC addressed many important changes to the budget, including grant funds and
more money for the Diversity Committee to help students with disabilities. In
an open forum, members of the Diversity Committee encouraged SSFC to consider
not decreasing their funds for next year, as was outlined in the proposed
budget.

Diversity Committee member Kate Skarda spoke, citing her experience as a deaf
person on campus. ?When I first got to campus I wanted to get involved and meet
people, so I asked McBurney (Disability Resource Center) if I would be able to
get an interpreter for these things. Their answer was quick and to the point:
?No.??

After SSFC has approved the budget, it will then be sent to the Student Council
for further review, Vice Chair Katrina Flores said. According to ASM bylaws,
the budget has to be approved and sent to the Student Council by Feb. 1.

The committee voted to disregard the bylaws and postpone their approval of the
budget at 40 minutes to midnight. The committee will continue budget
discussions at their next meeting, Sunday, Feb. 3.