The Student Services Finance Committee made the first amendments to the 2005-'06 budget Monday, including a $1,000 lump sum cut from the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Campus Center budget.
The money was intended to serve as a co-sponsorship fund, which would allow LGBTCC to sponsor smaller groups with similar interests.
According to UW-Madison junior Jennifer Knox, \Many other funding sources expect co-sponsorship, and yes, it's great for us to say that the LGBT center can co-sponsor other small organizations without giving a financial contribution, but the reality is those other funding sources really expect that you have some financial co-sponsorship.""
She said for a small organization like Queer People of Color, it is very difficult to find co-sponsorship, and when they approach SSFC, they are heavily scrutinized. This LGBTCC co-sponsorship fund would have eradicated that problem.UW-Madison senior and SSFC member Adam Schlicht thinks financial co-sponsorship is unnecessary.
""I don't think co-sponsorships need money to do it. I think co-sponsorships come from a collaborative spirit working to provide a broad range of ideas, not necessarily $1,000,"" he said.
SSFC Director Eric Turkell said he understands the committee's hesitation in giving out a lump sum without knowing where the money is going, but added that many smaller groups plan their events only two or three weeks in advance.
""I think that a lot of the SSFC organizations do have other organizations asking them for money to co-sponsor an event that fits their mission and we don't really have any leeway in our budget to do these sorts of things without cutting something else LGBTCC,"" Turkell said.
According to SSFC Representative Barb Kiernoziak, that leeway can be best allocated in co-sponsorship as it gives organizations the financial and physical resources to increase collaborations of students with differing viewpoints.
David Frank, director of campus radio station WSUM, requested ASM fund only 51 percent of its budget and stated his goal was to have other sources of funding fulfill the remaining 49 percent in the future. Currently, the station is about 30-40 percent from that goal.
""WSUM is a student-run station and that means you always want students to have control over particularly the programming and to do that you need students to be the largest investor in the station,"" he said. The SSFC will debate their budget this Thursday.
