Student Services Finance Committee approved its requested budget for 2010-11 Monday, giving raises to three of its salaried positions in an effort to retain knowledgeable and dedicated members.
The SSFC chair’s stipend increased from $6,800 to $8,400 in a vote of 7-2, the SSFC vice chair’s stipend increased from $4,000 to $7,000 in a vote of 6-3 and the SSFC secretary’s stipend increased from $2,000 to $2,800 in a vote of 8-1.
SSFC Secretary Matthew Manes raised all three motions.
“The purpose is to help mitigate some of the opportunity costs of filling these positions,” Manes said. “These require a lot of dedication, time and hard work.”
Manes said he did not came to these numbers arbitrarily but by tying the increase to a percentage of the current tuition at the University of Wisconsin. The chair’s stipend was increased to equal 90 percent of tuition, the vice chair’s stipend to 75 percent of tuition and the secretary’s stipend to 30 percent of tuition.
He added these numbers stemmed from taking tuition and fees reported by the Office of Admissions website and calculating the percentages.
“It’s approximately $8,313 for tuition — $9,331 if you add segregated fees,” Manes said.
He said the demands of these positions require long hours, as the SSFC chair works approximately 30 to 35 hours per week. Manes added how hard it was to be a student and hold this position, and it would be near impossible to hold another job, as well to be able to pay for tuition and cost of living.
Freshman Rep. Aliyya Terry also agreed with the increases.
“I think we should consider the living expenses because they are students and the amount of hours they have to put in here when realistically they could be using those hours for another job to support themselves,” Terry said. “I can only imagine how they have to do that in their lives.”
When Manes motioned to increase his own salary, he said was having trouble spending all the time he needed to for his position. He said he felt his increase was a decent level for his position to be at since he had to be there 15 to 20 hours a week, which meant he was sacrificing hours he could be working another job.
Rep. Andrea Nichols, a UW sophomore, agreed with the raises, saying the committee needs people in those positions who are knowledgeable and would do a good job overseeing the allocation of funds. The increases would ensure they were getting paid for the job they were doing.
Rep. Grant Smith, a UW junior, was hesitant for these increases.
“I don’t feel the way in which the increases were made is appropriate, to go about tying them to the tuition. If we wanted to do that, we should go through the bylaws; otherwise, this appears to be an arbitrary amount,” Smith said.
Sophomore Rep. Coffey Zhang said she felt the increase in stipend was needed but that $3,000 was too much. She suggested an increase of $1,500 so as to start small.
Manes mentioned she did not “reserve her right” when she made the suggestion, so the motion failed, but she could bring it up later if she wished. However, the motion was never raised again as debate continued.
The budget was approved at $168,346.49 and will be heard at the next Student Council meeting Dec. 9.
