The crowded gallery erupted into applause Sunday night at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Association Senate meeting after a motion failed to name 6 student groups ineligible for funding failed. Students packed the Union Ballroom to show their support for the 8th Note Coffeehouse, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Center, the LINKS Peer Outreach and Mentoring Center, the Women's Resource (WRC), the Center for Volunteerism & Student (CVSL) and the UWM Dance Team.,”
The crowded gallery erupted into applause after a motion to name six student groups ineligible for funding failed Sunday night at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Association Senate meeting.
Students packed the Union Ballroom to show their support for the 8th Note Coffeehouse, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center, the LINKS Peer Outreach and Mentoring Center, the Women's Resource Center, the Center for Volunteerism & Student Leadership and the UWM Dance Team.
"I think the number of students who attended influenced the way a lot of people voted," said Amanda Voigtlander, the interim speaker of the Senate and a junior in the College of Health Sciences at UWM.
The funding for these groups was cut when the senators declared them ineligible while writing this year's budget.
During the meeting, the Senate denied funding for the coffeehouse and dance team, but reconsidered its stance on the other four groups and issued them the same amount of funding they received last year. Had the budget passed the way it was originally written, each UWM student would have saved $13.05 in tuition.
"We don't know how much these (services) are used," said Tobin Huibregtse, a UWM senator and a graduate student. "This money's not going to students. It's going to someone's paycheck."
The Senate originally declared these groups ineligible for funding according to a Senate bylaw that states the Student Financial Committee can only provide monetary aid to groups that serve all UWM students.
Some senators said they believed that, for example, the LGBT Center did not serve all students. But according to the group's Web site, the center is open to "the UWM student community." Senators who supported the original budget that did not issue funding to the six groups provided two other solutions for the group members.
Reasoning that some of these groups provided "duplicate services," Senate members suggested the Student Funding Committee save money by grouping all the organizations into one diversity center to be run by a single graduate student.
Leaders of these groups said groups would not be able to run as successfully as before if such a change were made.
"There's no way I could do what two people are required to do. I'm a student first," said Lauren Ott, issues director of the LGBT Center.
Huibregtse also recommended the school move the excess funds from the Student Health Center and the Student Union to provide funding for the organizations. But according to Alan Lee, Student Association treasurer, approval from the university's Board of Regents would be necessary to transfer funds.
"We can't just move money around casually," he said.
But as the meeting neared a close around midnight, the Senate determined that such means would not be necessary. The LGBT Center, the LINKS Peer Outreach and Mentoring Center, WRC and CVSL ultimately received the same amount of funding they as last year.
"How are we wasting money on the betterment of students?" said Chris Wiley, a senator and student at the UWM School of the Arts. "We cannot declare these services ineligible because we hope the university would fund them."
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