The University of Wisconsin Student Services Financial Committee gathered Thursday to discuss budget and policy changes for student organizations.
Despite wavering opinions, the group approved an update to their apparel policy, increasing the amount students organizations that use the General Student Service Fund can spend on their own branded apparel from $300 to $500.
The approved update comes after both Sex Out Loud and People’s Farm requested an increase in their apparel budgets. But the SSFC has had issues in the past with organizations spending over $500 on shirts every year, Rep. Alex Beer said.
“I don’t know how apparel necessarily facilitates better services for students … it feels more like a luxury,” Beer said.
The SSFC also discussed its budget limitation policy. Currently, the budget limitation policy limits GSSF organizations to an increase in budget of no more than 10% from the prior fiscal year. The group discussed an update that would eliminate the use of percentages and rely primarily on the judgment of SSFC representatives to decide whether an increase is reasonable or not.
The primary cause of budget increases is adding new programs, Secretary Rishita Kilaru said. To address the importance of supporting student programming, Chair Quinn Wakley suggested a policy that would allow pilot programs to have a budget without counting that money toward the organization’s percentage increase.
“When there’s a really good program that’s providing a great student experience, I’d hate to prevent them [from continuing] just because of a 10% budget increase,” Kilaru said.
Representatives opposed to Wakley’s proposed budget limitation policy said keeping a set limit for budget increase was important.
Rep. Shia Fisher said SSFC’s budget limitation policies should require organizations to adhere to a specific, predetermined limit to help promote fiscal responsibility and efficiency into the future.
“They [student organizations] are just trying to put on programming for a student population,” Rep. Shia Fisher said. “Focus on your budget, tighten up a little bit, it will make your programs actually better.”
The SSFC also discussed its budget returns policy. Current policy limits GSSF organizations with budget returns greater than 15% from receiving a budget increase in the following fiscal year. Several representatives suggested lowering the cutoff to 10% .
The SSFC has yet to come to a resolution on either the budget increase limitation or budget return policies. It is next set to convene Monday.
