The Student Services Finance Committee dissected the UW Roman Catholic Foundation proposed budget at its meeting Monday, following weeks of disputes over UWRCF's funding issues and in the midst of the organization's federal lawsuit against the university.
The committee has until the end of the day today to make its final decision.
SSFC cut funding for permanent staff members of UWRCF and debated the funding of a handful of hourly student intern positions. SSFC chair and UW-Madison senior Zach Frey said SSFC cannot fund non-hourly student positions for a non-contract group.
""The scope of this group is extremely comparable"" to other groups whose employees SSFC agreed to fund,"" said Alex Gallagher, SSFC member and UW-Madison junior. Gallagher suggested amending the full-time positions listed in the proposed budget to a handful of student hourly positions.
As of press time, SSFC had not made any final decisions concerning the number of hourly student workers they proposed funding, if any.
Following its decisions in similar cases, SSFC voted to strike rent from UWRCF, as it is for an off-campus location. Rent for off-campus locations should not be funded by SSFC, according to Chancellor John Wiley. Wiley circulated a memo Thursday reminding SSFC of his March 2006 mandate to not fund rent for off-campus locations.
""These are student services that we're paying for and we have a say in,"" Gallagher said. He spoke out against accepting the chancellor's decision without question.
Some members of SSFC suggested the memo tried to force SSFC to accept everything Wiley said, while others declared SSFC is unable to address this issue given the nature of SSFC and its time constraints as it tries to make all budget decisions before the Thanksgiving break.
""We are not a judicial body,"" said Sree Atluru, SSFC member and UW-Madison junior. According to Atluru, SSFC does not have the ability to interpret Student Judiciary case law and UW System policies.
In addition to UWRCF, the SSFC voted on budgets for Sex Out Loud, CFACT, and WISPIRG. For all three groups, SSFC struck funding for rent and other than some minor amendments, funded the groups' budgets.
