Following outcry over the program's budget cut, the Associated Students of Madison Student Council unanimously approved complete funding for a free late-night cab service Wednesday.
The Student Council received criticism from both university officials and students after it cut funding for the Safe Arrival For Everyone cab program, last semester.
'Students were [angry] when SAFEcab and SAFEwalk were cut initially,' said UW-Madison junior Jennifer Knox, ASM finance chair.
While ASM provided the majority of funding for SAFEcab in the past, the latest ruling means that it will pick up the entire $137,036 for the program. University Transportation Services, who handled the administration of the program prior to a funding dispute, will be paid by ASM for providing management.
'They're giving us the portion of the cost that they originally paid for, so we're paying for all of SAFEcab,' said UW-Madison junior Zach Frey, a member of the Student Council.
UW Transportation Services withdrew its support from SAFEcab after ASM cut funding for both SAFEcab and SAFEwalk, a similar free service.
'We are picking up the entire tab, but transportation services will continue to provide administrative support, the dispatchers, the contracting services, the legal review of the contracts,' Frey said.
The decision of Transportation Services to continue its administrative duties helps dispel fears that SAFEcab would have to become an ASM-controlled program.
Under the new funding, nothing about the program will change, and the new system could become permanent, according to Dylan Rath, student council vice-chair, who headed negotiations with University Transportation Services regarding the program.
'They made us confident that this would continue, that it's not just a one-year thing,' Rath said.
Other members of the council did not share his optimism, and saw the management of SAFEcab as a short-term solution.
Yet UW-Madison junior Samantha Ziesmer, the ASM campus relations chair, said the extra year will give ASM time to find an ultimate solution for SAFEcab.
'This also buys us a fiscal year to worry about the future of SAFEcab, what we want to do with it,' she said.
ASM also approved a $198,421 budget for Collegians For a Constructive Tomorrow and tabled the budget for Roman Catholic Foundation, according to Rath.
