A University of Wisconsin-Madison committee is looking to reevaluate how the Student Service Finance Committee makes decisions about granting student organizations funding.
At a Tuesday meeting, the recently formed Eligibility Criteria Review Committee brainstormed items to include in its mission statement. These included goals such as supporting groups that advocate for students, that encourage the open exchange of beliefs and that align with the Wisconsin Idea.
Each semester, $14 of the $565 in segregated fees undergraduates pay goes into a General Student Services Fund, which is then granted to certain student organizations, known as GSSF groups. Students have previously raised concerns about the complex guidelines for receiving this fund.
The committee charged with examining the guidelines is made up of GSSF group members and SSFC representatives, and should soon include representatives from non-GSSF student organizations.
One much-discussed GSSF requirement is a mandate that over half of the organization’s efforts must be focused on offering a “direct service” to students, which has been criticized for being confusing.
“For quite some time … we’ve been looking at these direct service criteria,” Student Council Chair and committee facilitator David Gardner said. “There’s been misunderstandings of them, there’s been different interpretations of them."
SSFC Rep. Justin Bloesch said current eligibility guidelines inhibit organizations, especially many multicultural groups. He gave the example of Wunk Sheek, a Native American student organization that was denied funding in 2009 because members devoted much of their efforts to a pow-wow, a traditional custom. According to funding guidelines, this was classified as an event, which can not be considered a direct service.
Bloesch also mentioned the MultiCultural Student Coalition, which he said did not receive funding two years ago because their services were labeled as “not substantially different from what the university provides.”
“I think the criteria are very bad at recognizing … the cultural wealth that groups can bring,” Bloesch said.
Mariella Treleven, who represented the GSSF-funded organization Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, said she is on the committee because she thinks guidelines are overly “nitpicky” and complicated.
“If a group wants to do something for campus it shouldn’t be that hard of a process,” Treleven said.
