An Associated Students of Madison committee heard a budget proposal from Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics and also heard a presentation from the Wisconsin Union at its meeting Monday.
The Student Services Finance Committee also decided to change their standing rules so new student organizations can seek eligibility for General Student Services Fund for the spring semester.
Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics, which encourages discussions about faith and religion and educates students about issues that are important to the secular campus community, requested a total of $33,552.69 for the 2015-16 academic year, an increase of nearly $4,800 from its budget from the previous year.
The group also holds several events throughout the year, focusing on getting students involved in debate on secular issues.
The club will be adding a marketing chair to its salaried employees, and plans to increase its employees’ hours by two per week and improve their techniques to be more efficient, AHA President Sam Erickson said.
Despite adding a marketing chair position, the total request for advertising funds decreased, he said.
The group requested $3,200 after only spending $3,900 of a total of $6,500 in the previous year.
The Wisconsin Union’s budget process differs from campus clubs. In January, each unit of the Union builds a budget, which are then combined during a three day meeting and presented to SSFC in February, according to Wisconsin Union Director Mark Guthier and Bill Mulligan, the Wisconsin Union Directorate vice president of program administration.
After the combination of Housing Food and Campus Cash into one Wiscard deposit, the Union is on track to meet revenue projections for the year, they said. Cash and credit use have continued to decline from past years and use of Wiscards has increased, they said.
Memorial Union will continue to be under construction until 2017, with the food court area next in line for renovations. It will be revamped with new restaurants including a Badger Market and Freshest Express, and additional concessions will be added to the Terrace, they said.
These changes are projected to have an impact close to $13 million in revenue, they said.
Student salaries at the Unions are currently $8.50 an hour, and an increase of only $0.10 an hour would lead to an added $60,000 to the Union’s bottom line, which would result in an increase in student segregated fees to cover the additional expense, they said.
Also at Monday’s meeting, SSFC Representative Todd Garon brought up a new idea to bring more new student organizations to the GSSF during the spring.
SSFC Vice Chair Thuy Pham raised concerns that this would not help new clubs with the large amounts of time and research required to complete the paperwork for eligibility.
SSFC Chair Devon Maier and others agreed it may not be enough, but it is a good start towards being more approachable to new groups.
The group unanimously agreed to amend the final line to state their goal, Maier said, “make joining GSSF as accessible as possible for registered student organizations.”
