NEWS
UWRCF sues ASM for funds
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- SSFC denies funding for student group (September 30, 2005)
by John Potratz and Andriy Pazuniak
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Asserting themselves as a legitimate and inclusive student organization, members of the University of Wisconsin Roman Catholic Foundation filed suit with the Student Services Finance Committee Sept. 30 to overturn their denial of student segregated fee funding for the 2006-'07 academic year.
After a lengthy consideration and subsequent reconsideration process that rendered them ineligible for student funding Sept. 29, the UWRCF brought their case to the student judiciary, claiming their by-laws were grossly misinterpreted and the finance committee wrongly found them in violation of university policies.
Secretary of the Board of Directors at UWRCF, Laura Godlewski said during their hearings, the SSFC incorrectly cited one of the group's by-laws, stating the foundation was for "Catholic students, faculty and staff of the University of Wisconsin," as exclusive.
"I've never felt like that since I've been involved and I don't know anyone who has felt like that either," Godlewski said. "We just want to basically get to know individuals as who they are, regardless of their [religion]."
Because the SSFC felt the organization's by-laws — written in 1907 and left unchanged as the group consistently received funding over the years — referred specifically to Catholics, representatives said the group was not open to all students, a mandatory criteria to receive funding.
To refute this claim, UWRCF appealed for reconsideration, changed their by-laws and had members of other religious backgrounds speak at the second hearing.
However, SSFC again found them ineligible because their by-laws had not been changed before their initial application and therefore were not considered "in practice" at that time.
SSFC Chair Rachelle Stone was quick to back the decision against granting UWRCF funding.
"I think my committee was sufficient in question-and-answer and in debate, and determined [UWRCF] did not deserve eligibility based on the 13 criteria," Stone said, adding organizations must fulfill all criteria to be eligible for funding.
Not everyone on SSFC agreed with Stone's sentiments, however.
"We looked at [UWRCF's] eligibility application with more scrutiny than any other group's," SSFC Representative Zach Frey said, who had voted to grant the foundation eligibility last week. "Nobody looked at other groups' governing documents, and some questions that were asked, no one thought to ask the other groups."
Representing UWRCF in their suit will be Senior Operations Officer Beth Czarnecki, who said the organization clearly fits SSFC's 13 criteria and has for decades, regardless of their by-laws. The foundation has never been accused of violating university membership policies, she added.
"To judge us on violations we didn't know about is not right," she said. "There hasn't been any person who said they were personally harmed by our by-laws."
Czarnecki added the SSFC was not compassionate regarding their case and based their decision on minor stipulations in their own by-laws.
"We just think that the process that the members have to follow … is unclear and needs to be defined for us and for all groups," she said. "Part of the reason for the misinterpretation is due to the way the criteria is worded."
