The student government listened to the first of two presentations about a new strategy for how student segregated fees will be used to fund services and organizations on campus and responded with questions and concerns Wednesday night.
Student Services Finance Committee Chair Matt Manes presented an overview of the SSFC Strategic Plan to the Associated Students of Madison Student Council, highlighting how it will balance fiscal responsibility and providing services on campus.
The SSFC Strategic Plan includes developing several projects such as the Campus Service Fund and the College Student Council Fund.
Much of what the plan will likely achieve is to ensure vital campus services receive funding and remain in operations, Manes said.
“We, as a government, need to make sure that these services are provided on campus at all times,” Manes said.
Manes said the plan will involve strengthening current student government systems and will result in changes in the organization of those systems, but no defined proposals have been developed on how to make those changes.
Shared Governance Committee Chair Kyle VandenLangenberg raised concern about the legality of the student government deciding the value of organizations and services as vital to the campus.
Manes said they decide the value of the service, not the student organization. The student government decides whether the service is something they need to provide.
Manes said there are specific logistical concerns with this policy.
ASM still has time to address these concerns regarding the policy, but the bylaws involved in the plan need to be approved in order to ensure these projects happen by next year, Manes said.
VandenLangenberg also asked Manes how his plan, specifically the CSF, will interact with other funding programs, such as the General Student Services Fund.
“Nothing of the CSF will affect anything of the GSSF,” Manes said.
Vice Chair Adam Johnson said that much of the concern raised by council members was focused on how the plan will interact with existing funding models.
Johnson said he thinks many of the questions raised at this meeting will be answered at next week’s meeting after Manes makes his second presentation.
At large, debate was discouraged by Johnson who asked the council member to strictly stick to asking questions.
Johnson said debate on the topic will occur sometime by the end of November.
In addition, United Council Board of Directors member Dan Posca informed council members he had resigned from United Council.
Posca said his resignation was the result of accountability issues within the organization and his disapproval of the direction UC is going.
Posca said his resignation follows previous attempts to remove him from the board.
Johnson was elected by the organization to be the new board member representing Madison.
After last week’s introduction of a piece of legislation sponsored by VandenLangenberg that required a report from the chief of staff to be presented at each council meeting, council members had a chance to debate the legislation.
Representative Tyler Junger identified several issues involving the language of the report and moved to postpone voting on the legislation until next week in order to fix the wording.
