The Student Services Finance Committee approved the Associated Students of Madison Internal Budget for 2015 Thursday with few changes, including upholding Student Council’s decision to eliminate funding for United States Student Association membership.
Student Council eliminated USSA funding last week after members said USSA has not upheld its intended purpose, which is to represent student issues on a local, state and national level, and has been insensitive to groups on campus such as the pro-Israel community by having a policy that proposes to stop foreign aid to Israel.
Student Council members Sarah Neibart and Nick Checker addressed SSFC in open forum and both said they hoped SSFC would uphold council’s decision to not fund USSA.
SSFC Rep. Elizabeth Olsen motioned to fund USSA $10,000 because she said she felt it was important to fund an organization that advocates for students nationally. Olsen said the organization currently represents over 1.1 million students and said she believes it needs to be part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison because many students on this campus have student loan debt, an issue USSA represents.
Rep. Devon Maier said he was opposed to funding USSA because there are other student organizations that have been effective nationally. Maier said USSA conducted a sit-out a few years ago, which he doesn’t see as effective lobbying.
Rep. Callen Raveret said he was originally in favor of funding USSA to have a voice for students at the national level, but then began to research USSA and found a lot of negative attitudes toward USSA. He said the number of people who came to Student Council to speak against USSA was “unbelievable.”
SSFC voted 4-6-1 to fund USSA. Additionally, SSFC added $6,214 to the Rape Crisis Center line and removed a rider amendment that stated the Green Fund was dependent on ASM bylaw alterations that would have to pass two consecutive council meetings. SSFC Chair David Vines said bylaws will still need to be passed, but they took away the rider to give more incentive to pass the bylaws.
Also in the meeting, SSFC voted to minimally fund the Western Martial Arts Society and heard a budget request from the Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics.
During WMAS’s budget hearing Monday, the organization’s Financial Officer Matthew Manes said the group’s direct service is regularly held historical fencing workshops, although the workshops haven’t started yet because the organization wasn’t offered liability insurance until recently.
Many SSFC members originally said they were unsure how they would be voting on the group’s budget but most decided to minimally fund the group, saying it has not provided a direct service to students with the funding it currently has.
SSFC Vice Chair Ian Malmstadt said the martial arts group has not, and is not currently, spending most of its time providing a direct service, which is a requirement of groups receiving funding from SSFC.
“They have not provided a direct service for four months,” Malmstadt said. “So to say that their organization is a direct service is kind of puzzling to me.”
According to AHA’s website, the organization’s mission is “to promote the discussion of faith and religion on the UW-Madison campus,” and through their services they aim to educate students on “issues important to the secular community, and encourage the personal development of one’s religious identity.”
AHA Outreach Chair Sam Erickson said the budget they are requesting is nearly an 11 percent decrease from their last budget due to salary changes and budget lines they no longer need, like computer software and hardware.
AHA will receive their budget decision Monday.
