At Monday’s Student Services Finance Committee meeting, representatives concluded debate on the Student Leadership Program’s budget and heard a budget presentation from Greater University Tutoring Service.

Student Leadership Program decision

SSFC approved SLP’s overall budget after discussing the group’s salary budget.

After evaluating the requested salary change of $10.75 for the 2016-2017 year, SSFC Rep. David Morel suggested in a motion the salary be reduced to $10.50 per hour for all positions. He said he considered the group’s reason for the higher salary attracting more people to fill the positions, but he still felt it shouldn’t call for the increase.

“Considering we just had an increase to $10.50 an hour, which is over a $1 increasing wage, I don’t think the additional $0.25 an hour would be sufficient to attract new people to these positions,” Morel said.

Rep. Erin Harper agreed, saying she didn’t think the increase was enough to increase their demand in hiring by that much.

A motion was made to decrease the proposed $10.75 per hour salary to $10.55 per hour, which would result in a $765 decrease in the total salary budget.

The motion passed with full approval and there was no subsequent debate on the matter.

The committee later approved SLP’s budget of $58,900, a decrease from the group’s proposed budget of $61,665, in a 10-2 motion with one abstention.

GUTS hearing

Following the decision on SLP’s budget, the committee listened to GUTS’s Co-Director Andrew Mangham present the tutoring organization’s budget proposal.

The group, which provides University of Wisconsin students with free tutoring assistance ranging in subjects, requested $150,231.04 for next year’s budget, an increase of the $125,277.67 they worked off of last year.

Mangham said GUTS spent 85 percent of last year’s budget, and this year’s increase reflects the increases in student salary.

In highlighting GUTS’ programing budget, Mangham said they’re requesting the same amount as their current budget of $6,410. They would like to see how the number works, but it also serves in providing expenses for the co-director’s participation in the National College Learning Center Association Conference.

Mangham described the conference as “quite useful” and a good way to see how other universities handle their tutoring services.

Morel asked who in GUTS attends the conference, to which Mangham responded the co-directors.

Mangham said the reason they’re asking for a bigger budget is because they can’t coordinate the budget with the conference’s pending location, so they have to plan a “large” amount to make sure there’s enough money. This year’s conference was in Milwaukee, so Mangham said it was cheaper to go due to the meeting’s close geographic proximity.

Morel followed asking if it would be financially and logistically feasible for one co-director to attend the conference. It would result in cutting the budget required for both co-directors to attend in half. Mangham agreed it was something that could be explored.

SSFC will decide on GUTS’ budget at their next meeting Thursday, Nov. 12.