In a student government meeting Monday night, a committee both denied a student organization’s eligibility and approved another group’s eligibility.

After debate, Student Services Finance Committee denied funding to Wisconsin Student Lobby in a vote of 3-9 based on concerns raised by many committee members who did not believe the organization could prove they use funding in a fiscally responsible manner.

SSFC Chair Ellie Bruecker said at the end of the fiscal year 2010-2011, WSL returned 64 percent of its budget and they returned 54 percent of their budget at the end of fiscal year 2011-2012.

Bruecker said the organization made a reduction of close to 40 percent in the proposed budget this year but were still asking for $6,000 more than they spent last year.

“SSFC has to examine whether a group is fiscally responsible or not and the majority of the SSFC believed that because they had returned so much of their money and that they requested more than they needed, that they were not fiscally responsible,” she said.

Money not used by organizations at the end of a given fiscal year is rolled over to the segregated fees reserves that Associated Students of Madison has little control over, Bruecker said. 

Bruecker said this played into the decision regarding the eligibility of Wisconsin Student Lobby because if a group returns money and it goes into reserves, it does not get returned to students who paid for the budget with segregated fees.

SSFC Secretary Jonathan Harris said when groups present their budgets, SSFC has to trust that the money they are asking for is what they really need.

“It does not matter that the money not used by the organization is going into the reserve but it does matter that it is not going back into students’ pockets,” Harris said.

SSFC Vice-Chair Joe Vanden Avond said eligibility is a two-year process and though the group adjusted their budget, they still asked for double the amount that they needed.

“Doubling their budget is not fiscally responsible,” he said.

SSFC Rep. Sarah Neibart said the burden of funding rests on SSFC, and that she was in favor of the group’s eligibility. She said she believes it is the committee’s job to be stewards of student fees and added that the responsibility falls on SSFC, not the organizations applying for eligibility.

“I think it is kind of ridiculous to be putting this much weight on this specific criteria,” Neibart said regarding the criteria of fiscal responsibility for eligibility.

Ultimately the committee denied Wisconsin Student Lobby’s eligibility, but did move on to approve that of Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics.

Regarding the eligibility of AHA, though some concerns were raised regarding the question of support groups provided by AHA are a direct service, SSFC approved the eligibility by a vote of 11 in favor of and 1 against the eligibility of the organization.