Students discussed legislation regarding the Finance Committee at the Associated Students of Madison Coordinating Council meeting Wednesday.
Finance Committee Chair Ariela Rivkin explained that this year her committee has allocated all of its grants to registered student organizations. Rivkin said the committee worked hard to make sure that organizations knew of the resources available to them through the committee.
However, this year more organizations applied for funding, exceeding the amount the committee allotted to give. Rivkin closed the application, but said there are still organizations that applied before the deadline she would like to see funded.
The council decided that to fund these organizations, they would take the remaining money from the Green Fund, which would otherwise go into reserves. The change passed unanimously and Student Council will have a final vote on it at their next meeting.
The Finance Committee is also poised to undergo a name change within the next several months. Rivkin proposed that instead of the “Finance Committee” title, the name be changed to the “Grant Allocation Committee.”
Rivkin said she is excited for the change.
“I think that for student orgs that are looking for a body that allocated grants, ‘Grant Allocation Committee’ is a lot more indicative of what we do than ‘Finance Committee,’” she explained. “Finance Committee made sense when we did the internal finances ... but we don't do that anymore.”
Also at the meeting, ASM staff member Johnny Vannucci explained representatives’ hard work not only to get students active in the ASM election, but also to register students for the general elections. Vannucci said ASM will host “Fight For Your Right Under The Moonlight” March 15 at East Campus Mall, an event themed around the barriers students face when trying to register to vote.
Coordinating Council will next meet March 23.
