Monday’s weekly meeting was busier than usual for the Student Services Finance Committee, where they passed the Wisconsin Union’s $51.3 million budget.
SSFC also unanimously passed the Student Judiciary’s budget of $42,071.80 with amendment and listened to the Student Transportation Board and Student Activity Center Governing Board proposed budgets for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
The committee discussed certain recommendations regarding the Union’s budget such as the inclusion of Hoofers, a University of Wisconsin outdoor recreation student organization, in the Union’s budget. Many members did not feel comfortable including funding for an organization that requires a membership fee from student segregated fees, Rep. Kyle Watter said.
Some representatives proposed taking Hoofers out of the Union budget and giving an allowance, to the organization instead. But after extensive debate, the committee reached a vote of 12-to-0 to approve the Union’s budget with no amendments.
Rep. Erin Harper presented the Student Activity Center Governing Board’s 2016-17 proposed budget of $367,466. The budget includes increasing the amount of money apportioned for student wages by $3,000 to meet the new student minimum wage of $9.00, Harper said. The Student Activity Center Governing Board budget is composed of custodian, floor manager and board stipend salaries as well as building maintenance and projects.
“This is an activity space so I want it to have some life in it,” Harper said. “A lot of feedback was that this place is boring, and repainting and other building projects is pretty cheap.”
Other projects include window frosting which will help create privacy between the newly built semi-suite offices that were old conference rooms. The semi-suites were created last year to give students and student organizations more space. The budget also includes building in more outlets and buying more Mac computer chargers and other accessories since UW is predominantly a Mac school, Harper said.
Margaret Bergamini presented the Student Transportation Board’s proposed budget of $4,703,000, which includes funding for the ASM Unlimited Buss Pass Program, which provides Madison Metro bus services for students, campus-wide bus service routes and on-campus shuttle service to supplement Metro services during weekday business hour, Bergamini said.
In the calendar year 2015, students used their bus passes 3,108,455 times, not including the routes 80, 81, 82 and 84, Bergamini said.
“Particpants in this program remain very high,” Bergamini said. “Over 70 percent of the total student body picked up their pass again this semester.”
Because the Student Transportation Board ’s agreement with Metro calls for calculating the annual bill for services based on a four-year rolling average, the financial implication of fluctuating bus pass usage is slowed down, Bergamini said.
The impact of any strong fluctuations are spread out over a multi-year period and they can provide notice in advance in case there are any strong fluctuations, since the rate of bus pass usage is only calculated once a year, Bergamini said.
Students will see a slight increase in the share of the direct cost of the service. The direct cost of the service, which the Metro Transit bills to operate campus buses, will rise from 56 percent to 57.5 percent.
“On average, a full-time student at UW-Madison pays about $552 in student segregated fees per semester,” Bergamini said.
Of that $552, $11 goes to support the campus bus service. In order to keep the bus routes consistent, costs of the campus bus typically increase each year, Bergamini said. Sixty-seven percent of the initial 1,492 student responses, 995 students in total, agreed to keep campus bus service the same and charge more in student segregated fees, she said.
The Student Transportation Board is also changing its budget to accommodate the student wage increase as student employees are responsible for distributing these passes. The proposed budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year hopes to increase the hourly pay for student employees to $10.50 per hour.
SSFC will meet again on Thursday to further discuss these budgets and reach decisions.
