Following heated debate, members of a branch of the University of Wisconsin student government voted in favor of a fine of $2,205.87 for the Multicultural Student Coalition following the organization’s third incident of a wage violation.

The Student Services Finance Committee set the amount of the fine, which equals exactly 1 percent of MCSC’s budget. The fine will remove funds from advertising, travel, honoraria and training areas, which do not include funding for salaries or any direct services provided by MCSC.

According to the Associated Students of Madison bylaws, a third offense results in the freezing of an organization’s assets for 15 weeks. Rep. David Vines said he favored a fine rather than freezing MCSC’s budget.

“By voting to freeze the budget you’d be voting to shut down MCSC. That would be a tremendous injustice not only to MCSC but to the entire student body,” Vines said in the meeting.

At one point, Rep. Cale Plamann suggested there may have been an error in the SSFC bylaw that would result in the 1 percent penalty not exceeding $1,000.

In an interview with The Badger Herald, SSFC Chair Neibart said she believes there is an error in the GSSF accountability section of ASM bylaw under the third offense, which currently states that an organization may “receive another 1% penalty not to exceed 15 weeks.”

She said she thinks the bylaw should say “$1,000” rather than “15 weeks” in line with the second and fourth offense provisions of bylaw. In addition, she said she thinks the committee should be able–as it has been doing–to charge 1 percent or a minimum of $1,000 rather than what the bylaw currently states as “the penalty will equal 1% of the group’s budget but will not exceed $1,000.”

She said the body has been operating under the 1 percent or a minimum of $1,000 interpretation and that she will talk to SSFC’s advisor to straighten out the issue.

The committee voted to opt out of the harsher penalty, and while the majority of members agreed the penalty was too harsh, some were concerned the lesser penalty was too lenient.

“The fact that this is their third violation – in open forum [MCSC] said the same stuff they did the first and second time. I’m not convinced it won’t happen again,” Rep. Dan Posca said.

MCSC representatives contended the violation was a result of human error.

MCSC administrative staff member LeighAnn Eason said the organization intends to restructure its accountability process by “checking and double checking.” She added MCSC intends to get the organization’s alumni involved in training to ensure another infraction does not occur.

SSFC Secretary Ellie Bruecker said she hopes to forge a connection wherein MCSC would feel comfortable coming to the committee for help.

During the meeting, SSFC also debated the productivity and potential restructuring of the accountability liaison position.

Rep. Tia Nowack said she felt the position is broken and unnecessary, while Vice Chair Chase Wilson disagreed, saying it is important to check in on student groups.

“If we are giving out such large amounts of money, it would be an egregious error to eliminate the accountability liaison position,” Wilson said. “It’s our job to know what students are up to.”

While board members agreed on the need to change the position, they were not able to come to an overall agreement by the end of the meeting.