A committee charged with examining the Student Services Finance Committee funding eligibility criteria held a discussion Tuesday centered on revamping guidelines that determine which groups receive funding.
Each semester, $14 of the $565 in segregated fees undergraduates pay as part of their tuition goes into a General Student Services Fund, which SSFC then grants to certain student organizations known as GSSF groups.
The Eligibility Criteria Review Committee is charged with reworking the guidelines and will eventually draft new guidelines. It is made up of GSSF group members and SSFC representatives and should also soon include representatives of non-GSSF student organizations, according to Associated Students of Madison Chair and committee facilitator David Gardner.
The meeting included a conversation about how to determine whether student organizations should seek full budget funding from the GSSF or apply for smaller-scale grants funded by the ASM internal budget. Committee members also discussed creating less rigid guidelines.
SSFC Chair David Vines expressed concerns about brand new groups receiving GSSF funding that end up unable to follow through with plans they make with the money. He said it could leave SSFC vulnerable to those who are skeptical of students making decisions about segregated fees.
“If we let the system get set up where a bunch of groups have really big budgets and flame out in a very large and kind of public setting, it casts a lot of doubt,” Vines said.
MultiCultural Student Coalition member Olivia Wick-Bander said she didn’t want the GSSF guidelines to promote the practice but was concerned about targeting groups just starting up.
The discussion will continue at the committee’s meeting next week.
