Inflating MCSC’s budget request is the stringent yet obtuse restrictions levied on student group expenditures by the UW administration.

We have already questioned the inflated prices of most of MCSC’s furniture and office supply requests (desk for $600, chair for $400, monthly planner for $30, etc.). But discussions with MCSC and ASM leaders reveal the fault for these costly requests lies squarely at the feet of the Bascom bureaucracy.

Any student who has visited Staples or Office Depot is surely appalled at these prices. But student groups are forced to purchase office supplies and furniture from Material Distribution Services at UW-Madison. MDS is affiliated with Corporate Express, which provides a catalog from which the aforementioned items can be overpaid for.

You will not find a rule saying this must be so. But if you speak to student group leaders who have attempted to buy office supplies or furniture, they will tell you of the nightmare that accompanies potential orders from non-MDS vendors. A requisition for the funds must be made to and then approved by multiple bureaucrats, any of who can arbitrarily reject the request (there are no standards or guidelines). Weeks later, the frustrated student group is back to square one.

But if the student group uses MDS, the requisition flies through.

The abuse is clear: the dean of students bureaucracy is wasting student segregated fees every time a student group is compelled to use MDS. Over the course of the year, the amount taken out of students’ wallets is in the thousands. Every student group’s equipment budget, including MCSC’s, is grossly inflated, and the dean of students is responsible. SSFC should trim these costs, but it’s about time the dean of students did their part to cut seg fees.