The Associated Students of Madison Student Council met Wednesday to discuss changes within the Finance Committee, including grants for registered student organizations.
Finance Committee Chair Ariela Rivkin proposed a name change to her committee, suggesting a transition to Grant Allocation Committee.
“Finance Committee is in no way representing student orgs seeking grants,” Rivkin explained.
Rivkin said she hopes this name change will encourage more student organizations to apply for funding through the committee.
She further introduced bylaw changes regarding space available for student organizations to hold events.
The previous bylaw only allowed student organizations to host events in UW-Madison buildings. The new bylaw, however, would allow the student organization to seek an off-campus location with a two-thirds vote of the Grant Allocation Committee.
“We just want to make sure that everything is accessible to the students because that is our main goal,” Rivkin said.
Rivkin explained that event grant limits are set at $11,000 per student organization, but the average student organization only spends about $3,000-$6,000 on events.
She said she hopes to inform more student organizations of the travel grants available so that a wider range of groups capitalize upon the resources the committee offers.
Rivkin said she hopes to supplement more student organizations for travel experiences. However, she clarified that the committee cannot fund organizations to travel to large cities on networking trips.
“We don’t pay for job searches,” Rivkin said.
Furthermore, Rivkin discussed the importance of each student organization hosting one event per semester, as well as one travel event per year.
Also at the meeting, University Affairs Committee Chair Sally Rohrer discussed a recent ASM proposal to eliminate iClickers and TopHat in the classroom to make the classroom experience more affordable. The proposal was presented at a Faculty Senate meeting, where she said the committee did not react positively to this suggestion.
ASM Chair Madison Laning also announced at the meeting a $30-$40 tuition increase per semester in the next academic year to provide additional funding for UHS mental health services.
The council will meet next April 13.
