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Student Council - Wednesday 1/27

Tonight's Student Council meeting was predicted to go only ten minutes by Representative Paulson. It is never that easy with a Student Council, though.

First, a recap of all of the night's preceding can be found via the ASM press office.

Academic Affairs Chair Jonah Zinn proposed a piece of "legislation" (I put it in quotes because I really don't believe that ASM has the right to legislate) that mandates that ASM will join in the Haiti Relief efforts. Of course, there was hardly any debate about the act, but Finance Chair Beemsterboer did raise some interesting points about the place of ASM. My question is: is that something that should be mandated or is it really just implied since ASM has already started a Relief Day effort?

Also, Tyler reminded the Council for the 50th time that he read 1400 pages of MIU proposals.

We wrapped up by 7:30, not ten minutes but still pretty impressive.

What's Going On?

Its the second week back, which means that its time to get back in the gear of things. Thus, here is your update of things going on in the campus community.

ASM, WISPIRG, and United Council of UW schools have teamed up for a Day of Action for Haiti. We will run the numbers on what it raises later on, but in the meantime, participate!

SSFC heard the ASM Internal Budget on Monday night. The debate will likely be contentious on Thursday, but the finalized results are yet to be seen. It will be interesting to watch this develop.

Student Council meets tomorrow, and you can tune in here for updates as they come.

That's all for now. Happy Tuesday!

Madison, Comparatively

This past weekend, members of SSFC and I attended the second annual SUFAC Summit for the University of Wisconsin schools system. SUFAC, standing for Segregated University Fee Allocation Committee, is the technical term for SSFC and represents the official student allocation institution as delineated in University policies, and this conference represented the meeting of individual SUFACs to meet and discuss policies.

I won't bore you with the intricacies of other University SUFAC operations--nor will I explain the exceptional nerd-talk that develops when dozens of like-minding individuals get together and discuss seg fees--but I would like to expound on one fact that became excruciatingly obvious once the conference was underway. UW-Madison, comparatively, has by far the most complex (and arguably most powerful) SUFAC in the UW system. Save for maybe Milwaukee, Madison represents the only multi-faceted and highly refined system of allocating segregated fees; most other schools, no offense intended, operate similar to ASM's Finance Committee but likely allocate less.

Anecdotally, the evidence was all there. The dozens of questions for me from other Universities (one school even asked what Southworth was) and the raised eyebrows at our internal budget alone indicate that SSFC monetarily contributes more money via seg fees than any other school. (It is worth noting that UW-Madison has 40,000 students while some schools have less than 6000.) There is perhaps arguments to be made on the power and influence of individual SUFACs, but one fact remains unequivocally clear: UW-Madison's SSFC has more responsibilities dollar-wise than almost all committees in the UW system.

A Snowy Situation

According to the Badger Herald, today marks the first non-partial snow day ever in records dating back to 1965. The National Weather Service declared that 10 to 14 inches of snow were expected, and as of noon today, it seems that the bulk of the precipitation is over. Of course, this has caused some commotion in the campus climate.

First off, thanks to some hard working students and the decision of Chancellor Martin, the Student Activity Center will be open from 12-9 today, despite the urging of UWPD to close. Many students will be grateful to have a place to study today, especially with all campus libraries closed today. Special thanks to SAC Governing Board Chair Lauren Vollrath for keeping everyone posted on the situation.

Further, Madsion Metro has stopped operation for all buses today, leaving many students left walking. This has limited effect on your segregated fees, though, so don't fear about wasted money. The only loss absorbed today is the contractually-running free buses (80, 82, 85), which, to the best of my knowledge, are still being paid for. The bus pass, despite common belief, is not free, and the university is charged for every swipe on the non-"free" buses. Thus, when they cease operation, students aren't charged, so we can be confident that the effect on your money is minimal.

At the urging of ASM Chair Tyler Junger, the Student Council will not be meeting tonight, so any decisions that would have been made tonight will be postponed to a later date. The Campus First will be sure to keep you updated on that situation.

All other news on cancellations can be found here. Enjoy your day off!

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Monday Update - What's going on?

Here's a quick rundown of what's going on with your seg fees on campus:

Erik Paulson continues to prove that he is one of the most dedicated members of the student council. His new proposal for improving tenant relations and the system as a whole makes a lot of sense, but he is likely going to have some trouble getting the $50,000 proposal through both SSFC and Student Council before the ASM budget is approved next semester.

Last week, the Badger Herald ran a story about naming the new union. It seems there was some disagreement about who should be responsible for determining the new name, but it is pretty clear to me; those responsible for paying for the building should be the ones who name it. In this case, that's the students, and ASM is directly elected while the Union Council is not. At the very least, it could be brought before a referendum.

Shared governance is always busy.

Check out the GSSF calendar at the bottom of the page to find out what student groups are doing with segregated fees. One event of particular interest is the GUTS Biannual study day, which will help everyone get prepared for the finals looming right around the corner.

And lastly, SSFC met to hear budget proposals from the Student Judiciary and the Student Activity Center. Both budgets were very responsible, but I anticipate that some changes will be made at the decisions on Thursday.

-Brandon

An Open Letter from the SSFC Chair

This is the email I recently sent out:

I come to you as the semester comes to a close, with exams looming on the horizon. Before I embark on long library binges, I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for the pleasure of getting to know you these past few months. My hope is that, despite any decisions that you may not have agreed with, my committee and I have made strides in crafting positive relations within the process and ensuring vital services to the students of this great campus.

My time as SSFC Chair has given me exceptional clarity into the process of the GSSF and the services that we provide, but my view is also unsurprisingly one-sided. I am not an council member who is not on SSFC. Nor am I a leader of a GSSF group. I am not even an apathetic seg-fee-paying student anymore (such is the nature of my position.) As such, I am henceforth inviting you to join me in a discussion of the system and its many flaws and benefits.

I have taken great pride in my work up to this point, and my hope is that you can all see that. But my work on this committee is not complete until I know that I have at least improved the system, that I leave with SSFC in a better position than when I came in. With that, I would like to introduce a few questions to everyone, with the hope that you will take the time to answer them:

1) What is the role of the GSSF?
2) What benefit does the collection and distribution of seg fees give to the campus?
3) What services are essential for this campus?
4) How can we make it better?
5) What would make it worse?

Keep in mind that this is not my own personal evaluation. This is positive and critical feedback of what the GSSF is and how it operates. I hope that you will join me in this discussion.