The Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee kicked off their second meeting of the semester Monday by reaccepting the Greater University Tutoring Service into General Student Services Fund.
Fifteen UW-Madison students compose SSFC, who work to distribute $45 million in the GSSF for campus groups. SSFC members have the authority to suggest raising, lowering or freezing GSSF funding to UW-Madison administration and the Board of Regents.
The money that goes toward supporting student groups is a part of the GSSF, and groups that receive this money are typically known as “GSSF Groups.” These groups must reapply to maintain their part in the fund every two academic years.
GUTS directors Katherine Hayden and Andrew Mangham shared with committee members at its Sept. 10 meeting how its free tutorial assistance encourages students’ personal and academic growth.
“I’m very happy that we’re entered because I think that all the student orgs that are funded by SSFC do very valued things,” Mangham said. “I think GUTS offers an extremely valuable service on campus, and is one of the best examples of what student orgs can be and what student orgs can do for themselves.”
GUTS began in 1974 and aids about 3,000 students per year in academics, a third of which are freshmen. Mangham attended Monday’s meeting on behalf of the organization, where GUTS’ application for reentry into the GSSF for the next academic year was accepted with 11 voting in favor and one abstention.
Sex Out Loud also reapplied for admittance into the GSSF.
Sex Out Loud member Nicholas Fetzner said the group’s current mission is to promote healthy sexuality through sex-positive education and activism.
The organization supports peer-to-peer teaching, and only receives funding through the GSSF, a major eligibility factor all applicants must follow.
SSFC members will vote on Sex Out Loud’s application and announce their decision at Thursday’s meeting.
Before adjourning the meeting, SSFC Chair Thuy Pham discussed the idea of possibly making GUTS part of an ancillary fund in the future, which was created in 2007 to address groups that are not perfectly categorized as a GSSF group or non-allocable fund group.
While GUTS will currently be considered a GSSF group, its potential placement as an ancillary fund group would give it a three year budget contract with SSFC, compared to GSSF groups, which are set at two.
Pham specified that this is an ongoing conversation to pick up throughout the semester, suggesting a special task force could be created to address the change.
“Before we go to a small, special sub-group, we should at least have a full committee discussion, where we all know what we’re talking about,” SSFC Rep. Todd Garon said.
Garon reminded committee members that making GUTS an ancillary group would have to be run past Student Council as well, though noted the added people could lengthen the conversation.
