The Student Services Finance Committee met Monday, Oct. 24, to discuss budgets for student organizations.
Sex Out Loud presented their budget to the committee. Lissy Kettleson, Chair of Sex Out Loud and Maya Biskowitz, the Financial Coordinator, requested a budget of $110,880, which is an increase from last year’s budget of $83,630.98.
Their mission is to promote healthy sexuality through sex-positive education and activism. The increase in their budget is due to increased participation within the club, as they are reaching pre-COVID-19 membership levels. According to Kettleson and Biskowitz, the increase is mostly driven by salary increases stemming from the ASM salary increase from $10.50 to $12.
Sex Out Loud is hoping to bring in more speakers this year, including the President of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists. Speakers are very important to Sex Out Loud because it is mostly an educational service and teaching people about sexual health is a top priority.
$6,000 of the requested budget will be for sex supplies. They are implementing a mobile ordering system that will increase the distribution of the supplies.
The committee will vote on the Sex Out Loud budget at their next meeting.
The SSFC voted unanimously to approve the budget for Badger Catholic presented at a previous meeting, but adjusted the budget slightly.
The committee also discussed the budget request for Mecha de UW-Madison. Mecha was founded in 1968 with a Chicano/Chicana student movement. They worked with the State Legislature in the 1970s to help develop Chicano/Chicana curriculum.
The organization promotes political participation, culture, history, social justice, education and leadership. They work to help Indigenous movements along with Latinx movements.
The organization did not have a complete budget at the time of the meeting.
