An Associated Students of Madison financial committee approved funding through the General Student Services Fund for the Adventure Learning Programs and Veterans, Educators, and Traditional Students at a meeting Thursday.
ALPs facilitates team-bonding workshops as well as high and low ropes course activities. According to its website, ALPs is available to any University of Wisconsin-Madison program as long as the intent is to help create a stronger bond within members of a certain community.
According to a V.E.T.S. representative, V.E.T.S. has two main workshops, which are open to veterans, professors and UW-Madison students.
“Their goal is not to advocate their own cause, it’s to educate others about their cause.” said Student Services Finance Committee representative Brett Ducharme
GSSF groups must undergo eligibility hearings every two years and demonstrate their ability to provide direct services to students, which are educational benefits available and customizable to the needs of any UW-Madison student.
After brief debates, SSFC decided both ALPs and V.E.T.S. were eligible to receive funding. The votes were nearly unanimous with three abstentions in the ALPs vote and two in the V.E.T.S. vote.
Following the decisions on ALPs and V.E.T.S, the Multicultural Student Coalition applied for GSSF funding.
The MCSC is “an alliance of students deeply committed to social justice and the principles of unity, integrity, responsibility, and respect,” according to its mission statement. The coalition’s goal is to facilitate projects and multicultural interaction on campus, according to MCSC representative Libby Wick-Bander.
In the past, SSFC has stated that the MCSC has not provided enough “direct services” to students. In October 2011, SSFC ruled MCSC spent less than 50 percent of its time serving students.
But Wick-Bander said, “There is nowhere else on campus that provides such a wide, diverse, multicultural experience.”
Wick-Bander said that the coalition struggled to plan its budget when its funding was uncertain.
In April 2012, SSFC froze MCSC’s funds for 52 weeks after it determined MCSC violated ASM contract policy. MCSC applied once more for funding in October 2012, but then were only granted minimal funding.
SSFC will vote on MCSC’s eligibility at a meeting Monday.
