News

Tenant center loses funding appeal

After filing a lawsuit against the Student Services Finance Committee more than two weeks ago, Students for the Tenant Resource Center remains without any funding for this academic year.

The University of Wisconsin Student Judiciary released a decision Wednesday for a case between SSFC and Students for the Tenant Resource Center, in favor of SSFC.

Students for the Tenant Resource Center — a subsidiary of the statewide Tenant Resource Center that offers counseling for landlords and renters — applied for eligibility with SSFC in August. When SSFC grants groups eligibility, that group is able to propose a budget request to the committee for review.

SSFC is the financial branch of the Associated Students of Madison and distributes student-segregated fees to student organizations.

Before spring 2006, SSFC could distribute funds to student groups that were not registered with the Student Organization Office. But the UW administration changed that policy last semester, and now SSFC is only allowed to fund registered student organizations.

Though Students for the Tenant Resource Center is an RSO, its eligibility application was filed under the name Tenant Resource Center. The student affiliate group has applied for funding with the name Tenant Resource Center without contest in the past, but with the new policy, SSFC was forced to deny the student group eligibility over the misnomer technicality.

Josh Tyack, chief justice of SJ, said it was difficult for the court to come to a decision on this case.

"There were definitely conflicting ideas about responsibility and the circumstances and who is responsible," Tyack said. "There was definitely a lot of weighing of who did what at certain times — it was not easy at all."

SJ ultimately ruled in favor of SSFC because, Tyack said, the committee gave ample notice of the new regulation to all registered student organizations.

Tyack added Students for the Tenant Resource Center did not understand how the new funding restriction applied to them, and added that it is up to the student organization to understand the applications of the policy once they are informed of it.

"Given the good faith efforts by SSFC to clarify the policy and the application, TRC then must be culpable for the mistake," Student Justice Jeremy Jewett wrote in the Opinion of the Court.

Though SSFC legal council Faraz Parekh said he could not remember all of the committee's arguments, he stressed having the inappropriate name on the application was a "pretty big error." Parekh also referred to the new law as "the god of segregated fees."

"If we gave them the opportunity to be eligible, it would kind of be like setting the precedent that any group could do that," said Parekh, a UW junior. "They were reasonably well-aware of this. I don't know why they chose to do it that way."

Tyack said Students for the Tenant Resource Center has five days to appeal the decision.

Representatives from Students for the Tenant Resource Center were not available for comment as of press time.