Since a near-$1 million budget request in fall 2001, the Multicultural Student Coalition has been party to an annual campus controversy about how the Student Services Finance Committee ought to allocate student segregated fees funded by the student body to specific student organizations.
Though the two groups closed another chapter in their complicated history when SSFC shaved $6,367 from the coalition's $423,502 budget last night, the uneasy nature of their compromise has roots in MCSC's mission and the variety of campus perceptions of that organization's economics.
According to Lamont Smith, SSFC chair in 2001 when MCSC received $555,467 of its $977,418 request, a majority of committee members agreed to approve the record budget to aid the organization's vision of improving campus climate.
\Pretty much we believed in the system to say this is something the students have the right to do,"" said Smith, who currently serves as a student services coordinator for Diversity Education Program, an arm of MCSC. ""We have to give them a chance. All of the proposal materials seemed to pretty much warrant this type of operation, so that year we did come to that kind of compromise.""
Tshaka Barrows, who helped develop the ambitious budget as MCSC chair that year, said the coalition sought to step up its efforts in order to fill a vacuum of university support in an unwelcoming atmosphere, citing a UW admissions booklet with the photo of a black student digitally inserted on the cover.
""Basically, the whole program exists because the university doesn't provide adequate opportunity for people to gain cultural competency by going through programs that are available,"" he said. ""When MCSC came into play, the campus climate was at a crisis level. The funding and support ... was nonexistent. So we created a resource to fill this void.""
Although the segregated fees SSFC allocates make up only approximately 20 percent of the segregated fees students pay with their tuition bills-non-allocable expenses include University Health Services and the recreational centers on campus-organizational budgets receive most of the attention and scrutiny.
""I think by some, there is a perception that there is some fraudulence, there is some corruption,"" said SSFC chair Janell Wise. ""That kind of perception is waning. I think overall, I think people see a large amount of money and that's the first thing they assume.""
Some observers do not see segregated fee funding as essential to the success of organizations like MCSC, however. SSFC member Erica Christensen said she supports the coalition's commitment to improving campus climate, but does not think funding is essential to its survival.
""I feel like there's a lot of student groups that have become too dependent on segregated fees. It is the job of the student groups to prove to us that they need every penny that they ask for. I feel that in many cases it is just not proved to us. My philosophy is save the students' money,"" she said. ""I think that it's great that they're stepping up to that responsibility. But I think that has nothing to do with how much money they're allocated. ... I think that the community can be fostered with cuts to their budget.""
