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Student Judiciary says ‘play it again, LIC’
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by Matthew Dolbey
Monday, November 24, 2003
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.
