A student government committee approved budgets for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztl?n and Badger Catholic in a meeting Thursday.
Student Services Finance Committee voted to approve the entire budget for MEChA at $90,153 by a vote of 11 in favor, zero opposed and three in abstention.
Regarding the budget decision for MEChA, a group that has previously run into issues with obtaining funding within the past few years and experienced conflict over gaining funding for its location last year, committee members mainly raised concerns regarding how many members should attend the national MEChA conference.
SSFC voted to reduce airfare, hotel and registration in its national MEChA conference program budget.
Ultimately, the committee granted MEChA $1200 for airfare, $540 for hotel fees and $193 for registration in its national conference budget.
SSFC Rep. Devon Maier said he thinks no group should be sending more than half of its staff to a conference of this type.
“This [reduced national conference budget] would send three members, and I think that is more than sufficient for a national conference like this,” Maier said.
Maier said if SSFC allows for funding of the entire staff of one group to go to nationals, it will establish a precedent for other groups coming forward to ask for more than a valid amount. He said SSFC should establish a precedent of only allowing half of a staff to be able to go to a national conference.
SSFC Rep. Tito Diaz said he was opposed to the reduction because he believes sending all members MEChA asked to send, plus one, would help the group.
He said big conferences like this have many workshops involved, and he added he would want as many members as possible to attend the workshops.
SSFC Secretary Jonathan Harris said he thought the budget should allow for sending the entire group. He said they need many people to go because it is a national conference, with so many workshops that happen simultaneously.
“I am a firm believer conferences in general really help build and train people,” Harris said.
In the meeting, SSFC also passed Badger Catholic’s budget. The group had previously sued the university in 2007 over line items being withheld and content being censored in relation to its segregated fees in a conflict that ended in September of 2011, when a Wisconsin State Court ordered the UW System to produce settlement funds to the organization.
Thursday night, SSFC ultimately voted to approve the entire budget for Badger Catholic at $100,947.63 by a vote of twelve in favor, zero opposed and two in abstention.
The committee also voted to strike two hours per week from the marketing director position, thus reducing the responsibilities to five hours per week.
SSFC Rep. Kyle Quagliana said that from his understanding, it seemed like the individual is solely there to tweet and use Facebook. He said he thinks it is something a volunteer could do.
“I would be concerned with giving them honestly any hours,” Quagliana said. “I think that is something you can do in less than an hour.”
