At its Monday night meeting, the Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee denied the UW Roman Catholic Foundation’s request for “contract status,” or a status that allows student organizations to receive monthly checks rather than having SSFC deal with their finances directly.
UWRCF Director Tim Kruse said most non-profit student organizations that have full-time personnel have received contract status, including Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group and other student organizations of nonreligious natures. He said the SSFC members who voted “Nay” on UWRCF’s contract status are the same members who voted against the Foundation’s funding eligibility earlier this fall.
UWRCF filed a lawsuit Thursday against the UW System and UW-Madison administrators, accusing the university of religious discrimination on various levels, including the Student Organization Office and ASM.
SSFC also heard UWRCF’s budget hearing Monday night, and the Foundation’s budget is scheduled to be decided upon Thursday.
However, the backlog of budget decisions may push UWRCF to the next possible date for decision, as the committee did not decide any budgets Monday night after hearing budget proposals from UWRCF, WISPIRG and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Council.
SSFC debated Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan’s budget until shortly before midnight Monday, so far cutting the most amount of money from the organization’s line item for the National MEChA Conference—a total cut of $3,260, intended to halve the number of participants attending the conference.
The committee also cut $1,100 from its Raza Graduation event, a cultural event aimed at celebrating the graduations of UW-Madison students who identify as Latino/a and/or Chicano/a. SSFC Secretary and UW-Madison junior Jackie Goessl said she felt the group did not justify why the program was necessary, but SSFC member Andreall Moore said the program was indeed justified. According to Moore, the event is important because it serves undergraduates by showing them minority students can graduate after “navigating the UW-Madison campus, also known as the ‘sea of white.’”
The committee tabled MEChA’s decision, along with the Jewish Cultural Collective’s, Child Care Tuition Assistance Program’s and Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment’s budgets, until its Thursday night meeting.
