Student Judiciary and Student Activity Center Governing Board presented their budgets with minimal increases to the Student Services Finance Committee Monday night.
Student Judiciary proposed no increases from its 2009-10 fiscal year budget of $52,700, while SACGB only proposed a 0.8 percent increase, excluding the cost of maintenance for the Student Activity Center.
Student Judiciary Chief Justice Trenell Darby said most of the money used for computer hardware — totaling $16,000 — is specifically for the technology required to host the website for Associated Students of Madison elections.
This money is the fee SJ must pay to ASM to use their website, since ASM does not have the technology to host the service.
SACGB proposed their budget of $352,514 for 2010-11, which is increased from their budget of $306,550 for 2009-10. The board had a budget increase of 14 percent.
“The warranty on everything in this building has expired,” said Lauren Vollrath, chair of SACGB.
Without the cost of maintenance that was factored into the budget, the budget increase for 2010-11 is only 0.8 percent, according to Vollrath.
Some of the increases in the budget include a rise in printing costs to accommodate the increasing amount of applications SACGB is receiving for office space and humidifiers for general environmental comfort, said Vollrath.
Maintenance costs included $3,000 for labor and changing the locks on office spaces when occupancy changes. There was also a $7,500 cost to replace 10 furniture items in the SAC.
Vollrath said the furniture items used in the SAC are very expensive, citing the cost of one chair in the ASM office at $832. Couches in the SAC are priced at $3,000.
There was a decrease in advertising because there was no need to fill any positions on SACGB. There was also a proposal in the budget for sound panels in the multipurpose room in the SAC.
“There have been people who try to hold meetings in the multipurpose room who requested to switch because of all the echoes,” Vollrath said.
SACGB hopes to have a floor manager of its own for next school year, according to Vollrath. If it does not get a floor manager through the contract with the Union, SACGB needs to pay for the reservation service that is also provided through the same contract as the floor manager.
A “what-if” expenditure totaling $6,000 would provide for this expense and pay for the reservation service.
“Traffic is steadily increasing and the multipurpose room is always booked. This building is getting a lot of use,” Vollrath said.
Vollrath said SACGB has approved a proposal for a Department of Information Technology computer lab in the SAC tentatively by the beginning of spring semester. This would be at the cost of DoIT, and not the SAC.
There are also plans for a cafe in the SAC, although there is no timeline yet for when the establishment would open. Vollrath said SACGB is hoping to defer the cost of installing the cafe to an outside organization.
