Members of student government unanimously approved Badger Catholic’s budget and heard an eligibility presentation from Adventure Learning Programs in a meeting Monday.

Badger Catholic budget approved

The Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee unanimously approved Badger Catholic’s $90,890.75 budget.

Peter Cooney, vice president of Badger Catholic, spoke in open forum to address further budget questioning since last Thursday’s SSFC meeting.

He said he wanted to clarify the importance of the organization’s peer mentors who are able to meet and get to know students at their general speaker series, and said this made it important to hear their new budget.

SSFC hears ALPs budget proposal

Sam Toppe and Maty Merkatoris, facilitators with ALPs, presented their budget of $155,839.58, which is about a 4.5 percent increase from last year.

“Our mission is to challenge people through adventure-based learning to discover themselves and understand those around them,” Merkatoris said.

Merkatoris said they are hoping to increase staff from less than 20 people to closer to 45 people. They are expecting this increase based on their “expected growth,” she said.

SSFC Rep. Todd Garon said in past years ALPs has had between 13 and 16 people on its staff, which he said contradicts her claim.

“You just spoke to how you saw sort of an increase in need and you wanted to hire more facilitators, but you have the same number of facilitators […] Why?” Garon said.

Toppe said they have been trying to increase their staff for years, but they tend to hire younger students who can stay for three semesters at a time. Recently, they had a larger proportion graduate, he said.

This budget contained two new programs including an Association for Challenge Course Technology conference and Challenge Course Manager Training for the ALPS advisor.

Toppe said the group’s advisor holds a long-term position and attends training courses on a yearly basis.

Merkatoris said ALPs increased its advertising budget for this year by $900. They are hoping to buy more promotional items and take out print and online advertisements this year, Merkatoris said.

The software section of their budget also increased by $2,000 because they need to replace two Apple computers, Merkatoris said.

SSFC will vote on the ALPs budget this Thursday, Oct. 23.