Tonight the Student Services Finance Committee will again give away more student money. Last Monday the beneficiaries were political. Tonight’s big winner should be a service utilized by thousands of UW students.

The Greater University Tutoring Service provides valuable assistance to students on a campus where individuals can too easily be left behind. GUTS is accessible, helpful and effective. And, most importantly, it’s efficient — GUTS requested a meager 4.2 percent increase, barely ahead of inflation.

GUTS’ budget puts tonight’s other requests to shame. The Legal Information Center and the Adventure Learning Programs are asking for increases of 95.6 percent and 179 percent respectively. Both groups are following this year’s frightening trend of requesting massive budget requests without convincingly indicating how additional spending will benefit students. Like other groups, they want to hire more staff and give pay raises to existing staff.

While both groups are requesting an unreasonable increase, ALPS is clearly more worthwhile to students. It treats about 3,000 students a year to leadership training and student-organization development. The Legal Information Center, on the other hand, serves barely 700 students and 700 non-students a year, and its impact on campus pales in comparison to other student organizations requesting increases.

As we have said all year, budget decisions are all about priorities. SSFC should weigh the benefits to students of tonight’s organizations, compare them to other groups seeking increases, and act accordingly.