Student Services Finance Committee met Monday night to discuss potential methods for how General Student Services Fund organizations should keep track of student wages and hours more efficiently.
SSFC voted to pass Resolution 7, which would require all SSFC members to review items, like an organization’s budget, before their GSSF hearing. GSSF organizations are funded by student fees. This would also help the committee to better keep track of GSSF’s wage budget.
The resolution passed with a 10-0-1 vote.
Rep. Jon Kim introduced Resolution 8, which would require GSSF organizations to log their employee’s hours. Currently, some GSSFs have internal accountability measures, but others don’t. Individual GSSFs have the option to enforce their own policies in order to ensure their employees are logging their hours correctly, Kim said.
GSSF organizations would record their hours on a time sheet and on a separate file under the resolution. A template will be provided for them to record the hours, though they can record hours in whichever way works best for them, Kim said.
Previously, there were no requirements for GSSF groups to tell SSFC how their wage budget was being spent, Chair Jeremy Swanson said.
Swanson said two GSSF organizations have gone on funding freezes because of related incidents.
The GSSF’s wage information would be submitted to SSFC with their mid-year and end-of-year reports. Failure to maintain their record, or inconsistencies within their record, would be considered a violation of the wage policy, according to the resolution.
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GSSF employees could not be paid for time spent working over the summer outside of the Madison area.
“I’m more concerned with the risk of wage fraud. If [student employees] are working cross-country, and it’s work they legitimately have to do, then they have the option for an exemption,” Kim said.
GSSF organizations that operate off campus on occasion, such as the Adventure Learning Programs, can apply for wage exemptions, Kim said.
Rep. Cooper Beckwith asked what types of situations might count as wage violations, and whether a group of students from one GSSF committing a wage violation would count as multiple violations or one.
“Depends on the chair,” Swanson said. “My approach this year is to count that [circumstance] as one wage violation.”
Kim said mistakes could potentially be made in earnest. For example, a student might accidentally record the wrong hours. SSFC would determine the consequence for situations like this by two-thirds vote.
Resolution 8 passed with a 6-1-4 vote.
Monday’s meeting was SSFC’s last of the session.
