NEWS
Legislators push system to leave seg fee policies alone
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by Carl Jaeger
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
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."
Anonymous (December 5, 2007 @ 1:32pm):
Its great that not just students are behind this and understand the importance of leaving this issue alone but legislators as well. Hopefully Kevin Reilly will listen to everyone saying leave the seg fee policies alone!
Anonymous (December 5, 2007 @ 4:24pm):
I don't know much about this, but find it interesting that only democrats wrote to leave it alone. I wonder what some republican legislaters think.
Ray French (December 5, 2007 @ 7:12pm):
I'm sure that if the majority of students that don't disagree with the policy changes were organized like the Student Rights Coalition, you'd see a letter on the other side. You're gonna tell me that 33 legislators researched this issue as much as the committee members? Doubtful... I'm sure they just listened to the loudest students on the issue.
I know at least one of my local Eau Claire representatives didn't sign the letter because he supports my decision to support the changes.
Anonymous (December 5, 2007 @ 7:35pm):
Hey dude from Eau Claire, what's your friggin' point?
The REASON why the legislators signed this letter is because people like you DIDN'T ORGANIZE.
Anonymous (December 5, 2007 @ 10:18pm):
Ray French, you're a useless sellout who can't get through a Joint Finance hearing without getting spun around in logic circles. You have absolutely no credibility left, except when your chancellor needs to trot out his lapdog. You claim to be interested in controlling seg fees, yet fall over yourself to fund building projects or differential tuition on the student time.
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