H -°, L 7° | Tomorrow: 
H 17°, L 4°Somebody on the Wisconsin Union Directorate must’ve been reading a little too much Naomi Klein. By failing to place the Associated Students of Madison logo and disclaimer on a World Music Festival ad that ran in both student newspapers — both the ad and festival were paid for with ASM Finance Committee money — WUD apparently offended the God of Finance. No logo? No money.
In response to the omission, Finance Committee revoked the $9,000 in funding it promised WUD for the event. All of a sudden, the way Mom reacted when you forgot her birthday doesn’t seem so Machiavellian. And while rescinding the entire amount of allotted funding for a major WUD event because of a missing logo comes off as a bit unnecessary and feudal, surely Finance Committee can argue that rules are rules and that a strong line of precedent exists to justify the move.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case, suggesting Finance Committee might be on a bit of a power trip and that America still needs Dick Wolf-produced television. Because of the committee’s history, the WUD decision is completely out of left field, with little in prior rulings to suggest this is the necessary course of action. And by revoking the World Music Festival funds — an event that took place in September — Finance Committee is seriously hindering WUD’s ability to coordinate programming for the rest of the year. This isn’t like taking $5 from SLAC. After all, WUD does things.
Even more, it’s not as if by not placing a logo and disclaimer on an ad the World Music Festival was completely devoid of noticeable ASM sponsorship. Shortly before every group began their performance, someone from WUD would (ha!) read a brief, written statement affirming ASM’s involvement in the funding of the festival. Much like Hendrix warming up a Monkees crowd, that’s one hell of an opening act.
Technically, Finance Committee was within its right to revoke the money, but this doesn’t mean the decision was sound. The facts of the matter are simple: It’s a student newspaper ad. With a missing logo and disclaimer. For an event taking place almost two months ago. And it’s ASM. This isn’t a $9,000 question.
Finance Committee may argue this is a repeat offense for WUD, but punishing WMF for the transgressions of another WUD committee is like grounding Timmy because Tommy was throwing rocks at cars. So right now Mom has the wrong kid holed up in his room watching as the neighborhood plays tag and listens to music from all corners of the earth. And worst of all, he’s out $9,000.
IP hash: 7d38cfed
Agreed.
IP hash: e30d0cc1
When I read about this knee-jerk reaction by the Finance Committee the first thing I pictured was Finance Committee chair Cartman telling WUD to “respect my authoritayyy!”. The “punishment” doesn’t fit the “crime” in the least and now the Finiance Committee decisonmakers are hurting the student body as a whole because, as the article points out, WUD actually does things. Thanks guys! Hope you’re proud!
IP hash: 77c13cee
Especially since they revoked funding AFTER being recognized on every announcement and bit of paper larger than 3”x3”. The logo was what… 12 inches long by 6 inches tall on their banner? Boo to cutting student funds for a FREE fabulous DIVERSE festival. Rock on World Music Festival! Keep bringing great world music to the terrace!
IP hash: 77c13cee
Weren’t there like 25 sponsors or something for the World Music Festival? That would take up most of an ad, so it’d be understandable if they didn’t include logos on all the ads. Last time I checked, ads are for getting people to go to shows or buy things, not tell everybody who your sponsors are. You do that once you get people there.
IP hash: ded6fc4b
Thanks, Badger Herald, for a shining some light on an egregious misstep on the part of ASM. We appreciate your support of the Madison World Music Festival!
IP hash: 44b0afbc
It’s a VPN issue. If the Finance Committee revokes funding from one organization for violation X, they cannot turn around and not do it to another organization if they did the same violation.
IP hash: 54b83316
so the question now is, how should the festival organizers try to convince ASM to rescind this draconian decision? anyone has any ideas?
IP hash: 494c8148
ASM shouldn’t rescind their decision. Any organization that receives funding could go to the Chair of Finance or SSFC (depending on where said organziation receives the money) and ask for an exemption on the logo. So perhaps WUD should have asked for an exemption and avoided this whole situation.
IP hash: ab5b18de
I think the problem isn’t really about the logo. It’s that ASM said they’d put up $9,000, and they took it away well after the event happened, leaving the festival with a financial hole. Oh, and WMF did email the Finance chair, and you can see the condescending response they got in this article http://badgerherald.com/news/2009/11/18/asmfinancecommitte.php. Additionally, WUD’s leadership changes over every year, and they’re all new at the beginning of the year, so how on earth could they all be expected to remember all of ASM’s policies when they’re still learning the Union’s? Oh, and ef69b7fe, you are snotty to expect whoever made the ad to have held the presses while they checked with ASM to see about a logo exemption. If you had to send in an ad they day before it was due, would you really jump through ASM’s hoops just to get a straight answer out of them or would your priority be to send in an ad on time?
IP hash: e3a718c5
ASM put up the money with the assumption that the organization would follow policies. Seeing as WUD did not follow policies, why should ASM follow up with paying the money?
As for leadership change, if they are requesting money, they should know the policies. This is no different than any other agreement. Ignorance is not an excuse.
As to me being snotty to expect the organization to follow the policies? Well, don’t request funds if you don’t intend to follow policy. It would have taken a simple email to the finance chair to request an exemption, but they didn’t even do that. They wouldn’t even have had to delay their ad.
IP hash: 11a63034
You are obviously unfamiliar with the actual situation. The email that you reference - the one in which I was condescending - was after the funds for the event had been repealed. Not before. The ‘snotty’ poster explained that an exemption could have been given, but only BEFORE the violation. In the email request from Jennifer Dunnigan, the WMF Coordinator, stated that ‘we [WUD Theatre Committee] feel the recent ruling to deny all funding for this grant because of these few ads is rather unreasonable.’ Is it really so unreasonable for an organization to enforce its rules? You can drive the speed limit at all times and be caught the first time you speed. Guess what… the officer isn’t going to let you off of the ticket because you didn’t break the rule before. Rules are made to be followed. I completely understand the reason why the logo was left off. The ad simply wasn’t large enough to include all of the sponsors on it. I used to design ads for a newspaper, so I know that advertising space is precious. All it would have taken is a simple email or phone call to request an exemption due to this reason. I have been nothing but cordial in my responses to every student organization that has contacted me. My ‘condescending’ comments, if any, came in my rather blunt response to Marie directly when writing this article.