The University of Wisconsin Student Services Finance Committee met Thursday to discuss eligibility and budgeting for the General Student Services Fund for the Child Care Tuition Assistance Program and WSUM. Both groups’ eligibilities and budgets were approved unanimously during the committee meeting.

Following these votes, Recreation and Wellbeing presented their budget requests in a GSSF eligibility and budget hearing.

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To receive GSSF funding, Registered Student Organizations must be largely different from programs offered by UW and must be free to join, among other requirements.

CCTAP aims to give financial assistance to eligible UW student parents for their child care expenses to allow access to high-quality childcare and allow student parents to focus on their school and their family, according to their website. UW employees and postdoctoral fellows are not eligible for the program. WSUM is a student-run radio station that provides news and entertainment to listeners.

The committee voted on each group’s eligibility first and then voted on or amended their budgets.

RecWell’s budget hearing for the 2023 school year wrapped up the new business at the committee meeting. Representatives from RecWell gave a presentation on the organization and their goals during their hearing.

Director of RecWell, Aaron Hobson, said a significant portion of their budget goes back to students through wages and student support is a priority for the organization.

“The most important part of our team is students, so we put students first,” Hobson said.

Student wages are the first of three ‘buckets’ of expenditures that Hobson detailed in the budget hearing. The other two buckets are professional staff wages and supplies and services.

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RecWell, which operates the Nicholas Recreation Center, Nielsen Tennis Stadium and the Shell, among other buildings, interacts with many people, as its buildings tend to have 1.3 million users in a given year, according to Hobson.

“We see a substantial number of students that use our programs and that number only continues to climb…” Hobson said. “Right now we’re averaging between 5,000 and 7,000 students in the Nicholas Recreation Center alone every day.”

The SSFC will vote on RecWell’s eligibility and budget at their next meeting Dec. 5.