The Student Services Finance Committee approved its first budgets for fiscal year 2013-2014 Thursday by approving funding levels for Badger Catholic and Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán de UW-Madison.
The committee approved the Badger Catholic budget at a total of $100,947.63, after making a few line item changes to the group’s proposed budget of $107,953.95.
SSFC members cut extra hours from certain Badger Catholic positions, such as the marketing director, that the committee felt were unnecessary.
Rep. Kyle Quagliana said he felt uncomfortable funding the position at it’s full request.
“The vibe that I got was that this individual would be solely there for tweeting and facebook,” Quagliana said. “I feel like that could be a volunteer, honestly.”
The group reduced the marketing director role to only five hours per week.
The committee had similar worries with M.E.Ch.A’s budget, which was approved at $90,153.
Members felt uncomfortable funding the group’s full travel request for all its staff members to attend a national conference.
Rep. Sarah Neibart said she felt a reduction would be a good way to ensure that members who do attend the conference must come back and share what they learn with the rest of the M.E.Ch.A staff and campus community.
Also in the meeting, the committee heard Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment’s budget proposal.
According to PAVE representatives, the group is asking for a funding increase of 4.2 percent due to the growing importance of their Communications Director, who works to ensure campus is properly informed when discussing sexual assault and violence.
SSFC will decide on PAVE’s 2013-2014 funding level at its next meeting Monday.
