The University of Wisconsin-Madison Associated Students of Madison Coordinating Council met Wednesday to discuss transferring money from this year’s Varsity Day budget to other funds in the internal budget.
ASM Chair David Gardner introduced the proposal to move $6,800 from the $60,000 Varsity Day fund. $6,000 would be distributed to the Open Fund, while the remaining $800 would go to an office supplies line item.
The Open Fund, currently budgeted at $12,000, provides an easy means of funding grants to Registered Student Organizations for basic activities and necessary operating costs, Finance Chair Mary Prunty said. Prunty said this year’s Open Fund grants were completely allocated by September.
“We tried to find other areas of the budget to move this from,” Gardner said. “We couldn’t really find any other areas that would give us this large of an amount.”
Gardner said that the idea behind choosing to take money from the Varsity Day fund came from lack of planning on how to spend the allotted $60,000, as well as the Chancellor Office’s financial backing of commencement activities.
Shared Governance Chair Sarah Neibart, who also serves as Senior Class Treasurer, said she was “blindsided” by the proposal to reduce the Varsity Day funding.
Though no official plans have been made in terms of spending for the event, Neibart said she did have “plans as to what [the senior] class is going to be using that money on.” Neibart also cited other sources of funding ASM can look to besides the Varsity Day budget.
“If this was an emergency, then take it out of the reserve fund,” Neibart said.
Student Council will take up the proposed budget alteration next week for ratification.
Gardner also distributed the 2012-’13 UW-Madison Student Debt Report to committee members. Gardner said he wants to compose a response to the provided debt statistics, which detail the increase in student debt. The most recent report said that 51.4 percent of students graduating with a Bachelor's degree are graduating with loan debt.
A one-credit course is being developed for next semester that would educate students on financial literacy, Prunty said.
