The Student Services Finance Committee heard University Health Services' budget request for over $13 million Monday.
UHS Executive Director Dr. Sarah Van Orman said the group requested an increased budget from last year to retain staff members and to keep up with likely inflating health care costs.
"Madison is such a competitive market when it comes to health care providers," Van Orman said. "[UHS] has needed to make salary adjustments to continue to be quality health care providers."
After the committee denied Rec Sports and Wisconsin Union's budgets last week because the groups were unable to show exactly where student segregated fees would be spent, committee members asked UHS representatives to show where the fees would go in their budget.
SSFC Chair Sarah Neibart said UHS provided the committee with more detail on where segregated fees would go than Rec Sports and the Wisconsin Union did.
"Their budget was much more itemized than the Union's or Rec Sports'," Neibart said. "At the same time, they knew well in advance. We requested this information on December 3rd."
Neibart said she felt UHS's cooperation in providing a more detailed outline was encouraging for the budget's eventual approval.
"I think it's a positive that UHS has been very respectful of our request and that they want to give us this information and keep us in the loop."
SSFC also heard a budget proposal from the Rape Crisis Center that requested over $60,000 for the next three years. The center provides counseling services and a crisis hotline to students.
Director of Services, Kelly Anderson, said the center wants to work with the committee to ensure it can continue to provide its services.
"We hope to continue a long term relationship with SSFC to help insure that these services will be available specifically to UW students," Anderson said.
