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Regents create new segregated fee committee

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Also by Carl Jaeger:

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Officials debate Wiley's legacy (December 10, 2007)
'No guarantee' in UW success (December 10, 2007)
New rules apply for UW seg fees (December 7, 2007)
Regents hear about booze, textbooks (December 7, 2007)

by Carl Jaeger

Friday, August 31, 2007

Although off-campus rent and student salary debates continue within the Associated Students of Madison, a committee is being formed to make recommendations System wide.

This summer, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents decided to uphold its policy and deny six UW-Madison student organizations segregated fee funding for off-campus facilities.

The new Segregated Fee System Committee will consist of five UW System students and five UW System administrators, including Regent Thomas Shields, ASM Chair Gestina Sewell said.

"The Board of Regents is looking to clarify a few things," Shared Governance Committee chair Jeff Wright said.

One clarification that is anticipated, Wright said, involves registered student organization's ability to use student-segregated fees to lease work and office space off campus. Segregated fees are dues all students pay to help fund various student organizations on campus.

"Last year, there was confusion over the allocation of segregated fees for funding student organizations off campus," Wright said.

He added that another issue is whether the segregated fees should be able to pay salaries of registered student organization employees and whether students must lead the student organizations.

Wright said, "the working group will start meeting soon," and their recommendations will be forwarded to UW System President Kevin Reilly by October.

Reilly will then present the committee’s recommendations to the full Board of Regents, according to Wright.

Sewell said the UW student government is working to legitimize shared governance by improving communication with top university officials.

"Right now, ASM is continuing [to work] with our administration and the other UW System schools to make sure shared governance is being taken seriously," Sewell said.

Sewell added that although there currently are no violations of student rights, ASM would be prepared if anything arose.

"Students' rights are not really being violated, but if they are, we will work together with the administration and come together all powerfully to see what we can work out together."

ASM Student Services Finance Committee chair Alex Gallagher said he did not know what to anticipate from the committee but said he would be "following it closely."

"There's a lot of interests on the table," Gallagher said.

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