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Students challenge System policy
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by Nick Penzenstadler
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Taking its first step to combat University of Wisconsin System policy, the Associated Students of Madison decided Wednesday to reinstate a combined $87,700 for six student organizations with offices located off campus.
The system policy prohibits the use of student-segregated fees to fund off-campus student organizations' offices.
Chancellor John Wiley removed his one-year exemption from the system policy this year, and the Student Services Finance Committee was forced to reverse previous funding decisions it made to allocate funds for that purpose.
The Student Rights Coalition, which is comprised of members from various student organizations as well as ASM, collected more than 1,400 UW student signatures petitioning Wiley's decision to follow system policy last week on Library Mall.
SRC members allege that university policy allows students to be involved in all aspects of segregated-fee allocation.
SRC representative Amanda Green said students need to exercise their right to control the allocable funds.
"This is clearly an egregious violation of shared governance and has the potential to cause a lot of problems," Green said. "This is the only money that we give the university that we have a say about."
SSFC Vice Chair Kellie Sanders said SRC received a phone call from Chair-elect of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee and Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, urging ASM to restore rent and open up a forum for mediation.
Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow Treasurer Mike Dattner said students' rights go beyond the chancellor's ruling and the Board of Regents, and ultimately are legislated through state law.
Dattner added the issue of funding off-campus rent came up only recently despite the long history of shared governance.
"This is a reversal of a longstanding policy; there are groups that have had off-campus offices for 18 years," Dattner said.
According to ASM representative David Lapidus, the Student Council had the power to reinstate funding for off-campus rent based on shared governance policy.
SSFC Chair Zach Frey said the decision would bog down the process and ultimately not achieve anything.
"I think it will delay the whole process because the money will end up getting taken out anyway; it's just a big pain in the neck for everybody," Frey said. "I think they should have gone straight to system administration who made the policy."
SRC representative Katrina Flores said the issue also revolves around the inadequate amount of office space for student organizations on campus.
UW legal council Nancy Lynch and Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam fielded questions at the meeting and said the space issue is nothing new.
"There is a perennial problem. This is a huge issue on a campus as a whole; it's not meant to impinge just one group," Lynch said. "Student organizations have always been on this campus. We have hundreds that do just fine without any on-campus or off-campus space."
One UW official said administration had a meeting with SRC Wednesday morning to discuss solutions for the rent issue. UW will look for ways to accommodate groups in the short term and set up a task force to find a long-term alternative to funding off-campus rent.
Anonymous (December 19, 2006 @ 9:38am):
You complain that fees are too high, and yet you do not get involved in the process. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If more rules are not put into place and student groups are allowed to receive as much money as they want, the stench of corruption is only going to grow.
How much money is enough? It seems like for most student groups, at least the squeaky ones there is never enough. If you moderates reading this don't start to speak up your going to loose control. We have already seen it in the Federal Government. If you don't say something now, it's going to make it harder to control in the future.
