Greater University Tutoring Service applied for funding eligibility for the 2015-’16 fiscal year from the Student Services Finance Committee Thursday, stating the organization offers a direct service to students.
GUTS is a volunteer student organization providing free tutoring services to all University of Wisconsin-Madison students. According to the GUTS website, it assists with “academic courses, study skills, conversational English, and intercultural exchange.”
GUTS Co-Directors Alice Reznickova and Andrew Mangham said UW-Madison students are the “principle focus” of the programs GUTS offers because both those receiving tutoring and the majority of tutors are UW-Madison students.
General Student Services Fund groups must undergo eligibility hearings every two years and demonstrate their ability to provide direct services, which are educational benefits available and customizable to the needs of any UW-Madison students.
GUTS provides several programs that pair students with the tutors who most closely fit their requirements.
“We are trying to respond to student needs,” Reznickova said. “We are not trying to create hours for employees.”
SSFC will vote on GUTS’s eligibility Thursday and will also hear an eligibility proposal for Sex Out Loud.
SSFC representatives also discussed the creation of a special committee that would review the GSSF eligibility criteria, which would be instituted in response to criticisms from SSFC members and GSSF groups.
According to SSFC Chair David Vines, there has been concern centered around the direct service criteria and also concern the eligibility criteria may not be the “best way to ensure that groups have access to resources they need to properly serve students.”
Vines said SSFC has proposed changes to the eligibility criteria the past two years, but no “significant changes” were ever made because the committee did not work on changes until the end of the spring semesters, leaving little time for input.
The committee would be open to all SSFC members and would also have one spot per eligible GSSF group.
Vines said he hopes the committee will work to collaborate and institute the changes students want to see in eligibility criteria.
