Students will soon have a voice in how UW-Madison spends millions of tuition dollars specified for technology, members of the Associated Students of Madison's Shared Governance Committee said Tuesday.
The Student Information Technology Initiative Advisory Committee will now oversee the Student Technology Fee, a 1.7 percent tuition allocation for ""additional technology services for students,"" according to SITIAC's charter. The technology fee was passed by the state Legislature in 1993, and the Vice Chancellor of Administration's Office has controlled the funding for the past 17 years, according to ASM Rep. Erik Paulson.
""It wasn't like we were spending the money on things it shouldn't have been spent on, there just wasn't the formal oversight that was supposed to be there,"" Paulson said, referring to a 2001 UW System policy that called for each UW System institution to form an advisory committee of students and campus staff.
Last year, about $8 million was allocated using the technology fee, according to an ASM release. UW System policy mandates the university direct that money to services that will ""visibly benefit all students""—most commonly to DoIT, campus libraries and Learn@UW—as opposed to specific departments, but Paulson said the committee will do more than just passively observe.
""The engagement mission of SITIAC goes far beyond what UW System requires and will help UW-Madison collect new, innovative ideas from across campus and make them available to everyone,"" he said.
Melissa Hanley, ASM Shared Governance Committee chair, said one of SITIAC's most important jobs will be deciding which eligible department could receive any leftover funding each year, perhaps as much as $800,000.
""It would be similar to the Madison [Initiative for Undergraduates] Board in that it would receive proposals specifying where the money should go and decide where this extra money would go every year,"" she said.
The new committee would include three ASM-appointed student positions, three faculty members, three academic staff members and support staff from DoIT, according to the release.
