UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward overruled several of the Student Services Finance Committee’s rulings from this fiscal year Tuesday in a memo sent to committee Chair Sarah Neibart.
While the committee ruled in February not to increase the Wisconsin Union and Recreational Sports budgets as the groups had requested, Ward overruled the committee’s recommendation and opted to fund the groups’ requested budgets.
Neibart said her committee denied the groups’ requests because they did not provide all the information SSFC requested regarding how segregated fees are spent.
Neibart said since students pay for these programs, they should know exactly where their money is going.
“Student segregated fees are supposed to be paid by students and given right back to students,” she said. “You’re supposed to realize where the money is going and be able to reap the benefits of that.”
But Ward said the groups presented SSFC with all of the information necessary.
By not increasing the Rec Sports budget, he said the group would have to reduce expenses by about $245,000 to cover building renovations.
Additionally, he said the Union complied with an agreement ASM and SSFC signed in 2007 regarding how much information groups need to provide about how they use segregated fees.
Ward also eliminated from the budget SSFC’s recommendations to allot additional money for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán to find off-campus space if to find space on campus. He also removed SSFC’s decision to provide WISPIRG with funding for non-university professional staff.
But Neibart said Ward is mandated by UW System Board of Regent policy to first consult SSFC before amending student groups’ budgets, which he did not do.
“That was totally overstepping his bounds as the chancellor of this university,” Neibart said. “Without even consulting with us, he just took it out of the budget. Under regent policy, he is not able to do that.”
