The Student Services Finance Committee approved a budget of over $35,000 for the UW-Madison Legal Information Center Monday but tabled its decision on the Associated Students of Madison internal budget until next week.
According to the group’s website, the LIC is a campus group that provides free legal information to students and community members.
The committee gave the group less money than it requested for salaries and increased funding for telephone services.
Although SSFC was scheduled to decide ASM’s internal budget Monday it tabled the decision until next week.
Included in ASM’s $1.2 million requested budget is over $100,000 in training for representatives and funding for a commencement speaker.
Also at the meeting, UW legal official Nancy Lynch answered questions from SSFC members about the committee’s policy on helping student groups contract employees from outside of the university.
The discussion was motivated in part by SSFC’s decision to remove much of the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group’s budget if the group is not able to contract staff by the end of the fall semester.
Last week, SSFC decided student groups could use the Campus Services Fund to try to contract employees from outside the university.
Lynch said SSFC members were not responsible for finding a means to fund specific student groups.
“It is only [SSFC’s] job to assess and allocate whether a group meets specific criteria,” she said.
Lynch said it is up to each student group, not SSFC, to ensure parts of their budget are eligible for SSFC funding.
“It’s ultimately each student group’s job to decide which path they want to go [in deciding their funding],” Lynch said.
SSFC also heard the Wisconsin Student Lobby’s budget request. WSL’s requested budget was around $1,500 less than last year’s.
Some of the group’s requested funding would go to its fall kickoff and a promotional event at Lollapalooza in Chicago.
SSFC will decide the group’s budget next week.
