A student government committee voted to slash nearly $7,000 from the budget for an all graduates event pegged to bring a world-class speaker to the University of Wisconsin in order to free up funds to buy office supplies Wednesday.
The Associated Students of Madison’s Coordinating Council approved an amendment reallocating money from Varsity Day to additional lines of the current fiscal year’s budget. The group also addressed possible initiatives regarding a recent student loan debt report at the meeting.
Funding for Varsity Day, ‘Open Fund’
ASM ran out of money in the “open fund” of its budget in September and is currently running low on funding for office supplies. The open fund is the easily accessible money student organizations have the option to use to benefit their causes, Finance Committee Chair Mary Prunty said.
ASM Chair David Gardner proposed removing $6,800 from the “Varsity Day” line item of the fiscal year 2013-2014 budget and allocating $6,000 of that money to the open fund and $800 to office supply lines of the budget.
Varsity Day is an event for all graduates that could include bringing a high profile speaker to campus.
Shared Governance Chair Sarah Neibart expressed concern about the budget amendment. Neibart said she felt “blindsided” because the amendment had not been discussed before it was on the agenda. She said she felt it went against ASM’s bylaws, and the money should be attained from another source, such as the reserves.
“I would never do a budget alteration that was not in the spirit of the budget,” Neibart said.
After nearly half an hour of debate about whether it would be appropriate to take this money from the “Varsity Day” budget, Neibart proposed postponing the discussion to allow class officers, such as herself, time to form a collaborative effort to bring in a formal proposal. She said they would have completed this if they had known about the proposed budget amendment earlier.
Neibart’s motion failed and the budget alteration passed by a vote of 7-4. The legislation will be heard for a second and final time at the next Student Council meeting.
Student loan debt report
Gardner said the latest student loan debt report showed tremendous increases in average debt. There has been an 8 percent increase over the past two years, along with a 5.5 percent increase in in state tuition, he said.
He said 51.4 percent of UW students have debt.
“These are major figures, so I think that as a part of our affordability campaign, we should build a response to this,” Gardner said.
Several ASM members proposed additional initiatives to tackle student loan debt.
The current generation lacks proper knowledge on handling money, Prunty said, as she proposed an initiative to create a one-credit financial literacy course as a class option.
Years of research have been conducted on this topic and have pinpointed what students need to know during their shift from dependent to independent living, Prunty said. The course would offer knowledge regarding the fiscal transition from college to the real world, she added.
Grace Bolt, ASM spokesperson, also said a federal legislative bill dubbed “Higher Ed, Lower Debt” has not yet been introduced. The bill aims to refinance debt similar to how home mortgages are refinanced and to provide support systems for students and their families, she said.
