After much debate over thousands of dollars in the Associated Students of Madison 2010-11 internal budget, Student Services Finance Committee came to a decision they deemed fiscally responsible Monday.
Working with a proposed budget of $1,112,062.69 from Student Council, SSFC finalized the budget at $1,055,412.69, an increase of 1.53 percent from this year’s budget.
The biggest item of debate at Monday night’s meeting was whether to cut the campus organizer position — a full-time position paid $57,230 in combined salary and fringe benefits. The position spends 20 percent of its time assisting another staff member with the ASM internship program.
UW freshman Amanda Armstrong, an intern with ASM for the fall semester, said she did not feel the internship program would be the same without the campus organizer position.
“Having gone through the program, I’ve seen the workload is huge. If [the campus organizer] were let go and a student used to replace her in the program, I don’t think they would have the knowledge, time or even the requisites to do the same work,” Armstrong said.
Intern coordinator Chris Tiernan said after reviewing the position and its job description, one person would not be able to take on both roles because of all the responsibilities.
He added the position brings a vital part of the internship program together. If the position is utilized well, students have an invaluable resource.
“Without interns, there would not be certain systems in place. The 24-hour library would not be in place. The textbook swap and bus passes would not be here. These were intern projects that were supported by the campus organizer position,” Tiernan said.
SSFC Rep. Andrea Nichols, a former intern, said she felt it was fiscally responsible to cut the position. Nichols added though the position was a great addition to the office, it was not a necessary one.
SSFC voted to cut the position.
Housing Tenant Services was cut $50,000, effectively zero-funding it.
“I feel that setting aside money for a service that we have no idea what’s going to be done with it, and could just as easily be worked on and defined in the next few months and funded next fiscal year, will not significantly harm students,” Rep. Grant Smith said.
Rep. Jake Burow did not agree, saying it was a shame students would be missing out on a valuable service, especially after hearing stories of what students have been through with less than ideal landlords.
For the Finance Committee’s budget, operations grants increased by $35,000 to $160,000. The extra money came from a decrease of $10,000 from event grants and a decrease of $25,000 from travel grants, now set at $250,000 and $100,000 respectively.
Finance Chair Matt Beemsterboer supported these changes, saying he felt students would benefit more from increased operations grants that would fund services on campus instead of travel grants that might not have a direct benefit to most students.
Other changes included the stipends for leadership positions within ASM. Final stipends include ASM chair at $9,330, vice chair at $7,670, Finance chair at $7,000 and Nominations, Diversity and Legislative Affairs chairs at $5,130.
SSFC will meet Thursday Feb. 4 to review the University Health Services’ budget.
The original article stated that the campus organizer position received a salary of $57,230. That was incorrect: The amount is a combination of salary and fringe benefits. We regret the error.
