Student organization budgets will likely face considerable scrutiny when the Associated Students of Madison Student Council meets tonight. While some of the 2002-'03 budgets have attracted criticism for their unprecedented sizes, student government officials said they expect the budgets to remain largely intact.
\I think that there are groups that will be pulled out of the package, and I'm almost positive that there will be attempts to amend the budgets,"" ASM Chair Jessica Miller said. ""It requires a two-thirds vote of Council to amend this budget.""
""Two-thirds is a lot on purpose so that two or three people can't change budgets at their will,"" she added.
ASM Rep. Jeff Pertl said concerns about the new budgets drastically increasing student segregated fees stemmed from misconceptions.
""[There is] misinformation going around that [segregated fees] will go up a lot, but these groups only make up about 6.5 percent of the segregated fees,"" Pertl said. ""While they're big they don't really matter as much [as people think].""
Pertl also said the high budget numbers for these student organizations, which largely act to promote student of color issues on campus, should be examined carefully.
""People are really concerned about four specific groups, but it's not like these groups are asking for blank checks,"" Pertl said. ""[They are] all stepping up together as a coalition to define themselves as groups.""
After looking beyond the final total of all the budgets, and looking into the details of each organization's request, Pertl said that the money is being accounted for, and has very specific purposes.
""Where their budgets are increasing, it's a very tangible thing, there are not bloated lines,"" Pertl said.
Miller said the Student Services Finance Committee members, who originally heard and approved the budgets, properly considered each organization's request.""
Despite the fact that the Council is likely to closely look at specific budgets for the 2002-'03 school year, Miller said it is difficult to predict what kind of amendments will be proposed.
Student Council might also be slowed by the representative' relative unfamiliarity with large budgets, according to Pertl.
""Council doesn't have a lot of experience with budgets,"" Pertl said. ""We don't have the background to know whether this is a good or bad budget.""
After Student Council approves the student organizations' budgets, the Office of the Chancellor and the UW System Board of Regents will review them and determine what the final numbers will be early next year.
