The Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee voted on the Veterans, Educators and Traditional Students budget and heard the Greater University Tutoring Service 2014-’15 budget at a meeting Thursday.
V.E.T.S. is an organization that raises awareness, educates and facilitates discussions about veterans’ issues, military service and U.S. military and foreign policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to its website.
The committee cut $1,200 in advertising costs from V.E.T.S.’ budget, down from an initially proposed cut of $2,000 and approved a total budget of $33,674 with no opposition.
SSFC Rep. Devon Maier said he thought the new advertising budget was a “more reasonable figure.”
Also at the meeting, GUTS Co-Directors Andrew Mangham and Alice Reznickova presented the organization’s budget for next year, stressing how the overall budget falls under the $100,000 cap and is a 14.5 percent reduction from the current budget. Mangham said he felt satisfied with the overall budget.
“We did have to cut quite a bit of money from the budget, but I think that we did it in such a way that it’s going to let us provide the same level of service that we have,” Mangham said. “I certainly understand the need to be responsible with student segregated fees.”
Reznickova said she believes in the importance of the organization’s programs, particularly the academic, conversational language and study skills programs.
“We are trying to streamline our programs and make them more accessible in the spring,” Reznickova added.
SSFC chair David Vines concluded the meeting with a comment on the importance of ASM in light of former committee member German Larrain’s resignation Monday.
“The notion that no one uses these services is quite frankly ridiculous,” Vines said.
SSFC will meet Monday to vote on GUTS’ budget.
