Student government representatives gave a multicultural student group an extension for its budget despite its current ineligibility status on Thursday night as well as approved Badger Catholic’s budget with minimal changes.
The committee approved a budget deadline extension for the Multicultural Student Coalition by two weeks.
Although MCSC was denied funding eligibility by the committee, they are still required to submit a budget proposal in case the Student Judiciary remands their eligibility decision back to SSFC.
Members agreed the committee deserved leniency in the deadline considering the Student Judiciary’s decision will not be delivered until Monday.
The organization now has until Nov. 14 to submit their budget to the committee.
The Student Services Finance Committee approved Badger Catholic’s budget for the fiscal year of 2012-13 at $116,362.80 in a vote of 8-0-1.
The committee largely left the budget untouched from the original proposal Badger Catholic submitted, but several members proposed some alterations.
SSFC Representative Cale Plamann asked the committee to modify the organization’s advertisement amount through several suggestions, including one that would decrease the total by $2,000.
Plamann said he wanted to decrease the amount because a significant amount of advertising has gone toward the group’s speaking events rather than toward attracting people to their direct services in the past.
Representative Tia Nowack said she disagreed with Plamann, arguing cutting their advertising would only serve to limit the amount of students seeking the group’s services.
“If we’re going to cap the group at the amount of people they can serve, that is a disservice to the campus,” Nowack said.
The committee agreed that decreasing the amount by $1,000 was a reasonable resolution.
The committee also increased the amount allocated toward a leadership training retreat in order make the trainings accessible to 12 leaders instead of five.
Although some committee members disagreed with the move, SSFC Rep. Laura Checovich said she thought allowing more leaders from the group to attend trainings on faith advising would serve to enhance their direct services.
The amount for the training was increased to $1,560.
The Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group also presented its budget for the fiscal year of 2012-13.
WISPIRG, a student organization that was denied funding eligibility last year, was found eligible to receive General Student Services Fund funding earlier this year.
SSFC Rep. Justin Gerstner inquired about the loan WISPIRG had received from the statewide organization to maintain the group’s presence on campus and how they planned on paying it back.
WISPIRG Chair Matt Kozlowski said the group has not determined how they will pay the loan back yet, and repayment had not been factored into the budget proposal.
A final decision on WISPIRG’s budget will be hashed out and delivered on Monday.
