In a highly debated session, several student organizations were denied funding Thursday and early Friday morning by the Associated Students of Madison Student Council. The Multicultural Student Coalition, Diversity Education Services, the Asian Pacific American Council, Safe Arrival for Everyone Nighttime Services and Wunk Sheek were denied funding by the council, which had to approve all budgets previously set in the Student Services Finance Committee.
Hundreds of students gathered outside Memorial Union Thursday before the meeting to rally in support of various student organizations.
\We want to show our representatives how important student organizations are,"" said Faith Kurtyka, a UW-Madison junior and SSFC representative.
The rally extended through much of the meeting with students voicing opinions during the three-hour open forum.
Despite this, council members cited lack of information, lack of accountability and excessive budgets as reason for not approving some student organizations' budgets.
All of the student organizations with budgets that SSFC approved were originally presented to the group as one package. However, representatives voted to remove seven of the groups from the package to be addressed individually.
Budgets for the Adventure Learning Program, the Campus Women's Center and Sex Out Loud all passed as proposed.
Council members voted to package budgets for MCSC, DES and APAC together.
""We know how the votes are going to fall,"" representative Jacqueline Helmrick said. ""I think the last three will be best dealt with together.""
ASM Diversity Chair Jennifer Epps requested that council representatives vote in favor of the organizations' budgets citing their benefits to the student body.
""Please pass these organizations because they are not asking for too much,"" she said. ""They put on more activities in one month than we could attend in a year.""
Ultimately, ASM representatives were unable to reach a compromise on the three organizations, leading to their failure.
Representatives cited cost efficiency as reason for failing SAFE Nighttime Services' budget.
""One hundred and twenty dollars for every single walk isn't a very cost effective means of spending our money,"" representative Ryan Nichols said.
Other council representatives countered this argument citing the importance of such a program.
""Don't put a price tag on my safety,"" Vice Chair Emily McWilliams said. ""Don't tell me it's not worth $120 for me not to get raped.""
Despite such pleas, the council failed the budget.
Wunk Sheek faced a similar fate after representatives said too much funding was requested.
