The CW is a fledgling UHF television network that crutches heavily on teenage superhero angst and 140-pound aspiring supermodels. The CWC, or the Campus Women’s Center, is a fledgling registered student organization that crutches heavily on cries of viewpoint neutrality violations in hopes of restoring a greater percentage of its funding. Both should be ignored.
Unfortunately, while the joys of expanded cable make avoiding The CW as natural as “enhancement” supplements, the CWC, thanks in large part to the continuous shenanigans of the Associated Students of Madison, is in no rush to slide down the dial.
Last Wednesday, ASM Student Council voted to cut CWC’s Operations Grant from $33,100 down to $15,376, under the notion that the original budget covered money for services, not essential operational services. Operations Grants, after all, exist to provide funds for day-to-day business that is essential to the group’s existence, not paint supplies.
Interestingly, CWC was the only group whose budget fell to the additional scrutiny of Student Council. Both Rep. Max Love and CWC Program Coordinator Tina Trevi?o-Murphy, never hesitant to flail “wolf,” surmised that the only reason Student Council revisited CWC’s numbers was the sheer size of its grant.
Well, duh. Ever since Deepthroat taught a nation to “follow the money” — and probably well before that — we’ve been programmed to look at large numbers with a hint of scrutiny. At $33,100, CWC’s original budget accounted for nearly one-fourth of total Operations Grant allocations, and even at $15,376, it’s around double the size of the next largest grant. To suggest that amending CWC’s budget is biased, and not merely fiscally responsible, is quite a stretch.
Enter Tina Trevi?o-Murphy, who might as well be a taffy puller. Labeling the funding cut as a “misogynistic crusade,” Trevi?o-Murphy is arguing this action was nothing more than a furthering of Kurt Gosselin, Matt Manes and Matt Beemsterboer’s personal vendetta against CWC — and, one can only assume, every woman. Ever.
Of course, we heard similar viewpoint neutrality violation wails when Student Services Finance Committee gave CWC the funding ax last fall. But the bottom line here is that Operations Grant money cannot, by Finance Committee policy, be spent on supplies for “event oriented” usage, and the $15,376 the group received is there to ensure the group can simply keep its head above water. The supplies that were cut from the budget — including money for paint supplies, whistles and lube — don’t meet that standard.
CWC can always reapply for programming funds with SSFC next year. As long as it hires a financial coordinator next year who has some basic understandings of the application process for SSFC, it should have no problem getting refunded.
The Student Council session is over, so, with any luck, this is the last we’ll hear of this for a while. But while Trevi?o-Murphy sifts through the thesaurus finding new ways to say “injustice,” we’d like to simply offer her the words of someone she undoubtedly respects: “Grow up. You’ve created a horrible situation in which no one wins and all of campus loses. Congratulations.”
