The Student Services Finance Committee discussed budgets for the Wisconsin Union, the Campus Women’s Center and the Greater University Tutoring Services Monday night.
The SSFC heard the Wisconsin Union’s budget for the fiscal year of 2021-22. The Union requested a $47.1 million operating budget, which is a 1% increase from their previous budget.
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Representatives of the Union said they are planning to implement a $1 raise for student employees and a 2% raise for permanent employees. The Union is reportedly working to gradually raise wages for student employees up to $15 an hour.
The representatives also said the Union is working to operate at pre-pandemic levels, which plays into the budget increase as well. SSFC will discuss and vote on the Union’s proposed budget at Thursday’s SSFC meeting.
SSFC also discussed the GUTS budget proposal and whether or not tutors should be paid. This garnered much debate as representatives weighed the pros and cons of paying tutors.
GUTS hopes to run a pilot program in which it would pay tutors for the first time, hoping the pay incentive will help meet current demands. Some representatives in favor of paying tutors thought 15 tutors would be too many people to pay for a pilot program.
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SSFC Vice Chair Grace D’Souza said she is not in favor of paying 15 tutors because it will crack relations between tutors who are paid and tutors who are not. D’Souza also said GUTS’ model is designed to be a peer-to-peer tutoring session, which will be changed if tutors are paid.
Representative Kieran Talley said it may be a better idea to start this pilot program when COVID-19 is no longer an issue. After much debate, Vice Chair D’Souza motioned to table the discussion until Thursday’s meeting, which passed in a 9-0-1 vote.
The SSFC discussed the CWC’s mid-year report. SSFC Chair Tess Reilly said the CWC’s mid-year report was late and because a representative from the CWC was unable to attend, the SSFC voted 8-0-1 to table the discussion until their next meeting Thursday.
