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Student Judiciary says ‘play it again, LIC’

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Although believing they were done deciding budgets for the semester, the Student Services Finance Committee will reconvene tonight to rule on funding for the Legal Information Center, after a Student Judiciary decision last Monday granted the group a hearing.

If the committee finds the LIC to be eligible to receive segregated fees, a budget hearing and decision will ensue.

The Student Judiciary ruled in favor of the LIC in the 4-2 decision — reversing a decision earlier in the fall — and found SSFC chairman Aaron Werner did not fulfill his duty of informing the LIC of a deadline for eligibility applications. The ruling made LIC eligible for a hearing and ordered Werner to apologize to the LIC.

The Badger Herald received an e-mail from Werner stating that he would not write an apology because he felt he could not do so sincerely.

“[Werner] in no way, shape or form intended any injury to the LIC,” McCabe said, adding Student Judiciary created the situation for an apology after the incident actually happened.

Student Judiciary also created a cost-analysis comparison with LIC’s services, a student organization offering legal information to University of Wisconsin students. In the decision Student Judiciary miscalculated the cost of LIC’s services, stating that 1,000 hours of advice at $100 an hour would cost the campus community ” close to 1 million dollars.”

LIC co-director Aimee McCutcheon did believe that Student Judiciary made the right decision in granting the LIC an eligibility hearing, even though she does not necessarily agree with putting a price on the services provided.

“You can’t really put a dollar benefit on the organization,” she said.

The LIC was refused an eligibility hearing because they did not make a deadline for filing eligibility forms, a shortcoming they blamed on Werner’s failure to inform the LIC of the deadline for eligibility applications. Werner sent out a mass e-mail to registered student organizations with two file attachments containing eligibility information, but the LIC did not open one of the attachments, arguing they receive many ASM e-mails and occasionally do not open all attachments. This first decision by a three-justice panel, Student Judiciary cleared Werner of the accusation.

If eligibility is approved, the LIC will request approximately $15,000 of student taxes, and McCabe ensured that the committee will decide on every aspect of their budget with viewpoint neutrality.