After nearly three hours of debate Monday night, the Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee decided to postpone the MultiCultural Student Coalition final budget decision until the committee's Thursday meeting.
After MCSC executive members proposed a $419,315 at the Oct. 12 SSFC meeting, MCSC Senior Executive Member and UW-Madison senior Katrina Flores spent time Monday detailing MCSC budget priorities, presenting the committee with a list of corrections and the organization's major funding priorities.
Flores attributed ""flaws"" in the proposed budget of $419,315 to the fact that she and another executive member, now-SSFC member Mike Manuel, were unavailable to help the other executive members with the budget during the summer. Flores spent the summer in China, while Manuel had an internship. Also, since Manuel became an SSFC member beginning Fall 2006, he resigned from his executive member position within MCSC due to what he called a conflict of interest.
Flores' absence and Manuel's departure, according to Flores, left five new executive members with the task of composing the entire 2007-'08 budget.
""It actually served as a teachable moment for them,"" Flores said, explaining how she asked the group to present the budget even though she noticed flaws in it.
Now, she said, they will have this entire academic year to practice and refine budget composition and presentation strategies with her guidance, as she has several years of SSFC budget hearing experience through her position on MCSC.
SSFC member and UW-Madison junior Alex Gallagher proposed an amendment to simply adopt MCSC's suggestions as the group's budget and make further amendments from there.
ASM Finance committee chair and UW-Madison junior Sree Atluru voiced opposition to the proposed amendment, saying she does not ""like making exceptions"" by taking into account supplementary information the group presents. SSFC member and UW-Madison junior Mike Look said the committee should acknowledge the fact that MCSC ""made the effort"" to correct the budget and recognize that new leadership was the cause of the budget's inconsistencies.
SSFC chair and UW-Madison senior Zach Frey stressed viewpoint neutrality, saying that the line between neutral and subjective becomes ""tricky"" when analyzing the effects of new leadership on an organization's budget presentation abilities.
""We're walking the line about whether we should be talking about the budget or the individuals presenting the budget,"" Frey said.
Frey called for the committee to table the motion minutes before midnight, postponing the decision until Thursday.
SSFC also heard Engineers Without Borders' budget request and decided Vets for Vets' final budget of $40,018 Monday.
