The Associated Students of Madison voted to approve next year's student segregated fee budget, Wednesday, zero-funding two key features of the Safe Arrival For Everyone program: SAFEcab and SAFEwalk.
The decision came after ASM's Student Services Finance Committee cut SAFEwalk and SAFEbus last month.
The walk and cab programs were then cut Monday because they were the sources of contention between the university and ASM, while only SAFEbus received its $28,000 funding.
In a letter presented to SSFC, Lance Lunsway, Director of UW Transportation Services said if the SAFEwalk program was left unfunded, UW-Transportation would respond by eliminating their portion of funding to the SAFEcab service.
'[SSFC] had decided to cut funding to all the SAFE programs and we actually asked them not to cut that funding to make sure we didn't jeopardize any of the programs,' Lunsway said.
His letter further stated that the SAFEbus running hours would be eliminated by 20 percent and SAFEcab would be eliminated in 2006-2007 regardless of the council's rulings.
'I think SSFC sort of saw this as a threat,' ASM Chair Eric Varney said. 'The thing that students wanted the most is the thing that they're not giving us.'
As SAFE funding was debated in committee, the impending UW Transportation elimination of SAFEcab funding was discussed repeatedly.
'Money that we assign to [SAFEcab] is just going to sit there?? because there will be no program next year,' UW-Madison junior and ASM member Zach Frey said.
Frey said it was financially irresponsible for ASM to support the SAFEwalk program due to its estimated cost of $52 per walk.
Frey proposed the support of one of three options: restoring funding to postpone the issue for a year, restoring SAFEbus funding and eliminating the remaining SAFE programs or developing a transport program within ASM to manage all aspects of the SAFE program.
Frey named Margaret Berger, ASM member and creator of the UW bus-pass program, as a possible head of a new SAFE program.
'We believe it's a win-win to say, 'Here's your system, you can run it, manage it however you want to,'' Lunsway said. 'Because they do complain a lot about how we manage it.'
However, an ASM-run system is still far off and after a budget approval for only SAFEbus, students will be left to find alternative safe transportation until a plan is finalized.
As representatives dined on catered cheese and crackers, the council cut an additional 12 per cent of segregated fee spending, including a universal cut of food and beverage requests.
