After struggling with their budget for months, the Student Services Financial Committee passed legislation that will increase a General Student Services pay cap by $10,000 if they present “sufficient information,” Thursday night.
Students who work in ALPs — a group that provides a variety of adventure-based workshops, group activities and ropes courses — will now receive financial support for rising student salaries and services.
“As ALPs has grown as an organization, the number of staff that we serve and the administrative duties have found themselves in a position requiring unpaid hours for staff and workers,” said Hanna Braaten, an ALPs facilitator.
According to Braaten, student director hours, topic-specific training and all committee work are among the many aspects of their organization that continues to go unpaid because of the cap and their rapid growth as an organization.
The original purpose of the $80,000 cap was to introduce a theoretical limit that would be used solely for wages. As student wage levels increased over the years, the cap has become easier and easier to cross. Most GSSF salaries accounted for 55 percent of their overall budget last year, whereas for ALPs it accounted for 70 percent.
“We see a really large decrease in unpaid events. It lowers our staff’s quality all around and doesn’t make us any better as facilitators,” Jessica O’Neill, an ALPs facilitator said.
Still, ALPs members said the move serves as band-aid for current budget concerns.
“We definitely see this more as a short-term fix,” Cooper Beckwith, the lead challenge course instructor with ALPs said.
Although this will only be a fix for now, Rep. Zaakir Abdul-Wahid deemed it the “perfect solution” for the problem.
“We have a responsibility to make sure organizations maintain an economically inclusive design,” Rep. Jordan Madden said.
