Legislators push system to leave seg fee policies alone

by Carl Jaeger

Wednesday, December 5, 2007 00:23

A group of University of Wisconsin campus-area legislators sent a letter to UW System President Kevin Reilly Tuesday, expressing their concern regarding proposed segregated fee policy changes.

The letter, signed by 33 senators and representatives, all Democrats, asked Reilly to veto the proposed changes, which would prevent student organizations from using segregated fees to fund non-UW staff or pay off-campus rent, among other changes.

Reilly is scheduled to announce his decision on the policy changes at the monthly Board of Regents meeting Thursday.

Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, said the current segregated fee policies are sufficient for the needs of UW System universities.

"As I understand, the fees have been used for this purpose in the past, and the university and regents changed the policy," Risser said. "I thought it was a good policy, and I didn't see the need for the change."

Risser said the decision on the student segregated fee policy changes is a "two-edge sword."

"It could benefit students who want to develop a headquarters off the campus. On the other hand, they could be improperly used in other cases," Risser said. "I'm working on the assumption in the long run, it's better to give the students the discretion."

Rep. Joe Parisi, D-Madison, agreed, adding Reilly should not "fix it if it's not broken."

"I think the system works the way it does now," Parisi said. "I think it provides a lot of opportunities for a lot of students who are involved to build their résumés."

The current policies, Parisi said, work well, adding he and the other signers "don't think it has to be tinkered with."

Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, who is also the chair of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities, said he was unaware of the letter to Reilly.

UW System spokesperson David Giroux said Reilly will consider all the feedback he has received about policy changes, including the letter from the legislators.

"I know that President Reilly is going to take a look at that as he considers all the different issues and all of the different options that we have received on this matter and make sure that we understand people's concerns and address those in the decision on the proposed policy," Giroux said.

Giroux also said individuals critical of the potential changes need to completely understand all the facts and details.

"I think when the president announces his decision, he'll be careful to explain how the final policy will or won't affect students across all 26 campuses and here at UW-Madison, so those concerns will not be without merit," Giroux said.

Giroux added the policy will apply to all UW System schools and is not meant to fix a problem, but rather "meant to lay down some clear guidelines for a whole host of decisions that will happen in years to come."

"The way the statutes read, there's a role for students to play in allocating these funds, there's a role for the administrators to play — that's already written in the statute," Giroux said. "If you read the proposed policy, nothing in that proposed policy would weaken that process of shared governance at all."