After hours of lengthy discussion, the Associated Students of Madison passed its internal budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year in their first meeting of the semester.
The budget passed with 22 members voting in favor, one opposed and three abstentions.
During a Dec. 9 meeting, ASM’s finance committee voted to dedicate $20,000 for creating legal services for students in need, particularly those seeking help for an immigration manner. At the Wednesday meeting, however, the internal budget listed $50,000 to be allocated toward the creation of a student legal service center.
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Despite the overwhelming support for the service, many representatives were hesitant to approve $50,000 for a project that did not have a set proposal.
Newly admitted Rep. Brooke Evans said more research and planning should go into the program before any funds are set aside for it. With an estimated four to six months of planning ahead, Rep. Colin Barushok said it would not be wise for ASM to “put the cart before the horse.”
“[Approving the legal services center] means all we’ll end up doing is taxing students for something to go into effect for something that isn’t going there,” Barushok said. “Like Chair Carmen Goséy says, you don’t tax the students for an idea.”
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Additionally, pointing to the high reserves ASM already has, Barushok said approving the $50,000 for legal services would not be smart budgeting.
The body voted to clear the $50,000 from the internal budget and are creating a task force of members interested in exploring opportunities to provide legal services to students.
In addition to discussing clearing the money set aside for student legal services, representatives also debated an amendment proposed by Rep. Katrina Morrison.
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Morrison moved to increase support for students with disabilities from $10,000 to $20,000 after the student finance committee cut the amount in half.
The money set aside to support students with disabilities provides accommodations for students participating in extracurricular events.
“Cutting [the funding] in half shows a dangerous message — it shows we don’t care about necessary accommodation for students with disabilities,” Morrison said. “I think we need to take diverse abilities and necessary accommodations more seriously.”
As chair of the student finance committee, Barushok said their main reasoning to cutting the funding came from its historical use. In past years, not all of the funds were used up, meaning that money went into ASM’s already high reserves, Barushok said.
Having met with a member from the McBurney Disability Resource Center, Goséy said she was recommended to allocate $10,000 to support students with disabilities.
“Caring doesn’t mean putting a dollar amount on something that won’t be used,” Goséy said. “It becomes a problem when we increase [funding] just because we want to send messages.”
Morrison’s amendment failed and the support for students with disabilities remained at $10,000.
Along with passing the internal budget, Evans passed her first constitutional amendment, which sought to revamp ASM’s nondiscrimination policy to include other underrepresented groups of people on campus.
During open forum, Barushok also took three minutes to address the complaint ASM received last semester regarding the Black Lives Matter sign in their office window.
In a previous meeting, ASM was accused of being “too political” for having the sign in the window. Barushok, however, disagreed with this notion.
“What good is a student association if we can’t stand for anything?” Barushok said.
