H -°, L 7° | Tomorrow: 
H 17°, L 4°
Associated Students of Madison Chair Tyler Junger presented the ASM internal budget for the 2010-11 academic year to the Students Service Finance Committee Monday night.
The budget, totaling $1,185,436.80, included the creation of an off-campus housing support center, wage increases for financial staff, a proposal for a Creative Works Fund and the creation of the chief of staff and expansion of the assistant press director positions.
“It’s a very complicated budget. It’s very large. This budget sets the direction for next year’s ASM” former SSFC Chair Carl Fergus said.
A new Housing and Tenant Support program was proposed at $50,000. The purpose of the program, Junger said, is to create a contract with a yet undetermined agency on campus to help students with housing issues.
One of the goals of the agency, he said, is to prevent landlords from taking advantage of students who do not know the intricacies of off-campus housing.
Two of the financial staff positions have a proposed salary of $34,662.70, which would be increased and equalized from the former salaries of $31,312 and $30,951.50.
Such an increase, Junger said, is to correct past errors in payment when the staff was not allocated enough money.
The Creative Works Fund would fund student art projects, ranging from software to sculptures. The difference from the projects an art student would create in an art studio or lab through the university would be the absence of the academic pressure of grading. Also, a student would have some of their materials funded instead of paying for them personally.
The chief of staff position would seek to alleviate the pressure of the chair and vice chair.
There would be a chief of staff position available for the 2010-11 school year, with a salary totaling $8,545.80.
Meetings with the dean, chancellor and Board of Regents, paired with the daily duties of keeping ASM intact, are detrimental to the chair and vice chair positions’ abilities to handle new student ideas, Junger said.
The position would be in charge of facilitating discussions with individual students. Currently, Junger said he and Vice Chair Tom Templeton do not have time to coordinate such interviews and this inhibits their ability to better serve students.
“I think the chief of staff would be beneficial for the chair and the vice chair and allow them to undertake new initiatives,” SSFC Vice Chair Michael Romenesko said.
The two Assistant Press Director positions were also expanded from eight to 12 hours a week, their salaries totaling $8,271. The positions were expanded to further delegate some of the responsibilities of the press director, whose stipend is proposed at $6,341.
Together, the changes would amount to less than a 1 percent increase in segregated fees.
The internal budget also allocated $400 for an end of the year ASM dinner.
The internal budget for 2009-10 was $1,102,023.76.
IP hash: 59e5d109
How much of that $1M is travel and event grants? At least that money can get back to the students.
Two chief of staff positions? Seems like a lot. I would also be interested to see what sort of return we are getting on the stipends to committee chairs. Are they still allowed to vote themselves money? Can people still serve as both SC reps and Committee Chairs? If so, that is ridiculous.
IP hash: da00e193
There is only one Chief of Staff position in the budget. It was a reporter error. We are asking however for 2 assistant press office directors.
IP hash: 6b668b42
@8:40
Approximately $500,000 of the $1 million is grants, going directly to students. In addition, there is an additional $70,000 to pay for financial staff to administer those grants.
As Templeton correctly pointed out, there is only one Chief of Staff position. Some Committee Chairs are SC reps (and I don’t see a problem with that—they are often the most dedicated), but the first Bylaw of the ASM is that no student may receive a substantial raise if were around when it was instituted.
IP hash: 94bc1b3f
you can’t fill even one assistant press office director position. why do you need two? your savior ken harris can’t get it done? or you just want to pay more people to sit around and have zero impact on operations? isn’t that the asm motto? “paying people more to do less”
IP hash: 2d068f0a
I myself put in about 40-50 hours per week and Ken works many more hours than his job description says. For an organization that represents over 42,000 student and works with people at the city and state level having one person lead the press relations branch and me run the External Affairs side of things is rather difficult. If done correctly and how I would like to do things there is enough work for 4 or maybe 5 people involved in the External Affairs/press office department.
IP hash: b74db27c
Outstanding. I commend the both of you. My following questions are sincere. How did things go last semester? Do you have any measurable indications that all the hours you and Mr. Harris worked moved the needle of public opinion? Do you have a catalogue of media clippings that demonstrate a direct outgrowth of your efforts? Have you asked the student body of 42,000 students how much they know about their government? Have you at least tried to survey a representative sample? What were the results? In other words, has ASM gained visibility as a result of your 40-50 hours/week and Mr. Harris’ (I’m guessing) 25 hours/week? Have you tried to reach out to students (those you cited as representing) in any other way besides sending e-mails about job openings? Do you feel students care about what ASM does? Do you care that 95% (another guess) of the students you represent have no idea what you do? Is it your responsibility to make them aware or their job to seek you out? How CAN you make them care? Is it unfair to say hat Mr. Harris’ most prominent tactic has been to place ASM in the news section of the Badger Herald where he was previously employed? Are you satisfied with those results? Should you be?
Here’s what I would do: throw a huge kegger at the SAC, invite the whole damn student body, take all the rightful blame for the ridiculous stunt, and earn instant recognition as the most bad-ass student gov’t ever.
You’re right, that wouldn’t work. But you SHOULD do something cooler, funnier, more interesting. Even if it’s just a stunt.
Don’t worry about losing legitimacy as a governing body, you don’t have any the way it is.