The Wisconsin Union addressed members of student government about their need for a slight increase in segregated fees to fix maintenance concerns at a meeting Thursday.
Wisconsin Union President Sarah Mathews told Associated Students of Madison’s Student Services Finance Committee that the Union is asking for a $7.80 increase in segregated fees. This would thereby increase Union-specific segregated fees to $228.48 per student per semester.
Mathews said the Union is dealing with the reality of a revenue decrease at Memorial Union because of construction.
On the need for student fees in general, Mathews said the Union utilizes segregated fees to ensure the buildings are ready to use. She said the buildings and facilities are the widest point of engagement for students.
“The number is in the 20 and 30 thousands (of students) engaged with the buildings,” Mathews said. “They [students] enjoy the Union as a space and the living room of campus.”
The Union has not always been able to keep the pace with facility needs, according to Mathews. In the first 50 or 60 years of the Union’s history, Mathews said, almost no money was diverted to basic maintenance and upkeep.
She said lacking attractive facilities hurts the Union’s model to funding because, for example, if student organizations do not want to hold meetings in the Union’s facilities or someone does not want to have their wedding in Memorial Union anymore, the Union would be unable to bring revenue in.
“It messes with the revenue we can bring in,” Mathews said. “We become more and more dependent on segregated fees and as a student, I don’t want that to happen.”
Union Director Mark Guthier talked about a three-year phase-in of segregated fees in order to maintain the brand new Union South and Memorial Union, once it is renovated.
Guthier said over the past three years, with this year included, the Union increased segregated fees by $5 a year to address maintenance concerns. He after the three-year phase-in, the Union will be have saved $6.5 million, a number he said is “close enough” to the $7.1 million recommended value for facility maintenance.
“We didn’t want to be in the same position that we had been in before we started this entire project, which was two facilities in bad need of repair,” Guthier said.
Mathews also addressed a question posed by SSFC Rep. David Vines regarding the need of for the Union to request funding from segregated fees, when it pulls $30 million in non-segregated fee revenue. She said the Union needs segregated fees to address usage, as no other convention center on campus has 20,000 walking through them every day.
Mathews said it is the mission of the Wisconsin Union to be the heart and soul of campus. She said if the Union closed its doors to students, like other convention centers in Madison, it would have fewer expenses.
“It’s because we’re a student and campus-focused space, because we’re so heavily in demand and we value being that heavily in demand,” Mathews said.
