University of Wisconsin Student Services Financial Committee discussed plans for the auxiliary fund, approved a budget for Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics, received a Recreational Sports update and heard Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment group’s budget.
Auxiliary Fund
SSFC ended up tabling both of their proposals for auxiliary fund until next Thursday’s meeting in order to gather more knowledge about to proceed with the fund.
Rep. Todd Garon previously created a two-tier proposal as a way to promote conversation about the auxiliary fund and the possible avenues and directions SSFC could take with the fund.
The two tier proposal essentially separates the fund into a second tier of the General Student Services Fund. Organizations that would qualify could include campus media, educational services and transportation services, according to Garon’s proposal.
Some members, however, did not respond well to Garon’s proposal.
Rep. Erin Harper did not like the proposal and believed the suggestion to move away from two year hearings to three was a bad idea because the frequent eligibility hearings gave SSFC more knowledge about what organizations were doing.
Though they did not come to a conclusion, SSFC Chair Thuy Pham warned of being careful in whatever the committee decides to do with the fund. She said possible changes might open up a floodgate of other organizations to get into the auxiliary fund.
Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics
President and Vice President of AHA Nicole Niebler and Branden Stats clarified SSFC’s questions before the committee approved AHA’s budget with a $1,000 decrease from their original proposed budget.
AHA originally proposed a budget of $72,301.50. SSFC decreased the amount by $1,000 after deciding they had overspent by a $1,000 in their printing funds.
In a vote of 8-0 with two abstentions, AHA’s budget was approved for $71,301.50 for the 2017 fiscal year.
Recreational Sports Update
SSFC also listened to the update of what RecSports is doing in their three facilities on campus.
RecSports Director John Horn spoke about RecSports’ Master Plan updates as the program moves toward opening new fields as of fall 2016.
These fields include a flag football, softball, soccer and lacrosse fields.
Horn said RecSports has struggled to fund maintenance costs to fix floor damage and broken machines.
The state previously covered maintenance costs, but with recent budget cuts, RecSports had to turn to other means to pay for the costs, such as using the five dollar wage increase SSFC granted them last year.
Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment Budget
Finally, SSFC listened to PAVE present its budget proposal for the 2017 fiscal year.
PAVE is the only peer-to-peer organization that works to prevent sexual assault, dating violence and stalking through education and activism.
PAVE proposed a $88,957.50 for the 2017 fiscal year.
PAVE asked for an increased budget because they have plans to start several new programs this year PAVE’s Finance Communications Coordinator, Echo Yu said.
SSFC will make its final decision on PAVE’s budget proposal at their next meeting on Monday, Oct. 26.
