Student government flipped open the front covers of their 3-inch-thick budget proposal binders Monday night during the first round of student organization budget proposal hearings.
Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, FH King and Vets for Vets presented their budgets for the 2010-2011 fiscal year in front of the Student Services Finance Committee.
While FH King and Vets for Vets are requesting more funding for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, MEChA is requesting $64,477, which is $2,035 less than they were approved for in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
Ismael Cuevas, MEChA’s publicity coordinator, said the decrease is a result of MEChA trying to focus their energy on their CulturArte direct service program and become more fiscally responsible with student dollars.
Aside from the CulturArte program, MEChA is also requesting money to pay student workers, bring renowned artists to campus and send student representatives to regional and national MEChA conventions.
While Vets for Vets requested more money for advertising efforts, FH King Program Director Micah Hahn said her organization needs more money to keep up with the increased student involvement.
“We don’t want to have to turn anybody away,” Hahn said.
Throughout the hearings, committee members voiced concerns about providing funding for the three organizations to have representatives attend regional and national conferences.
“This money is administered to provide for direct services here on campus,” said SSFC Chair Matt Manes. “There are always questions when we are sending people elsewhere with student dollars to make sure that in doing so, we are receiving something back on our campus.”
FH King members are concerned SSFC will not agree with their request for funding to send all eight of the organization’s directors to the annual regional conference.
However, the conference has “break out” sessions geared toward each director’s specific focus and serve as important resources for the advancement of the group, Hahn said.
In addition to budget hearings, Manes presented two student organization policy violations that surfaced last week.
According to Manes, Wisconsin Student Lobby hired and fired a student employee without informing the Associated Students of Madison. Manes has yet to talk with WSL representatives about the nature of the situation, and whether the violation was done intentionally.
“With policy violations there are two things I look at. First intent, second the actual harm that is done,” Manes said. “To determine intent I’ll look at the nature of the offense, how it happened, why it happened and whether the system failed because of lack of oversight, negligence, or malicious intent. I just won’t know until I talk to them.”
The second policy violation Manes presented involved a MEChA student worker logging more than the 20-hour-per-week limit.
The council as a whole will ultimately decide on the consequences for these violations, which are determined on a case-by-case basis, Manes said.
“At some point the consequences of these violations become a judgment call. All we can do is try and be fair to everybody that comes in front of us and treat them equally,” Manes said.
