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The student government denied funding to the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group for the 2011 to 2012 fiscal year in their meeting Monday night.
The Student Service Finance Committee denied WISPIRG’s funding eligibility with a vote of six against and three members abstaining from voting.
WISPIRG received $128,378 for their 2010-2011 budget from SSFC last year.
The group was denied funding because the committee felt University of Wisconsin students were not the primary beneficiaries of their programs since some of their campaigns were aimed at the local, state and national level, SSFC Chair Matt Manes said.
One of the criteria for groups to be eligible for funding is 75 percent of beneficiaries of the group’s programs must be UW students.
Representative Cale Plamann said after he looked at the number of people who benefited from WISPIRG’s campaigns there was no way he could approve them.
“I don’t see a way of getting around the principle beneficiaries. That cannot be argued with a straight face” Plamann said. “I think they should be praised instead of having this put on them, but the fact of the matter is you have over a million beneficiaries [for one of WISPIRG’s campaigns] when the max number of people here at Madison is 56,000.”
WISPIRG Secretary Allie Gardner said they are being punished for being successful and benefiting too many people on issues.
She added students want to get involved in wider issues such as high-speed rail and health care so they can make a difference at a local and state level.
WISPIRG Visibility Chair Sami McKeough said the entire general student service fund and the SSFC are flawed.
“The current eligibility system is flawed, [the committee] talked about all the good things we have been doing,” McKeough said. “Now WISPIRG will probably change the system, because that’s what we do.”
Manes said he recognized how the student body feels about these issues and said it will take time before SSFC could address them and bring them to students.
He added SSFC made a commitment to review its processes and is looking for ways to meet funding needs in a broader depth and context.
McKeough said WISPIRG would appeal the decision.
SSFC granted F.H. King funding eligibility at the meeting
The committee postponed F.H. King’s decision last Thursday because the committee was unsure if they met the criteria for 75 percent of the group’s beneficiaries being UW students, but the group submitted new numbers for the committee to review after Thursday’s meeting.
Representative Aliyya Terry said F.H. King demonstrated that even if UW students were not the primary focus of the group in the past, the group has shown they have changed.
Erika Jones, former finance director for F.H. King, said they were glad they got funding but the process was very difficult.
“The process was unclear and overly bureaucratic and it was a lot of hoops to jump through,” Jones said. “Now I’m going to go drink a beer.”
SSFC also heard funding hearings from The Wisconsin Student Lobby and Collegians For a Constructive Tomorrow.
Both group’s decisions will be announced Thursday at SSFC’s next meeting.
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Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!
Socialist political action organizations should NOT benefit from student segregated tuition taxes!
No more feeding at the public trough for WISPIG!!!
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does this mean that madison students cant support programs that do things that protect the environment? Thats lame
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This is fucking insane. SSFC needs a major slap in the face so they wake up and realize how ridiculous this is. You really want to deny funding to LITERALLY the most successful group on campus? How does that make any fucking sense? This calls for a major rewrite of the bylaws, by people who actually know what they’re doing and not whatever idiots couldn’t think through the consequences of their actions the first time around. I hope this story gets to the mainstream media and becomes a national disgrace for SSFC. What the fuck are they thinking?
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Gotta love comments from people who have zero understanding of VPN and the numerous supreme court cases that have happened because of it.
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Nice try but I’m a law student and I’d say I have a better understanding of VPN than most (including Southworth etc. etc.). The point is that a) the rule is ridiculous and b) it’s been reduced to an absurdity. Rules should be applied equally across the board but this one needs to go - or needs to be rewritten so it says what it means. I think WISPIRG has a VPN claim if anything - by the same logic as SSFC used here, every environmental group benefits everyone in the world, Wisconsin Student Lobby benefits everyone in Wisconsin (or at least every student in Wisconsin), etc. It’s a matter of how far you stretch the definition of “benefits”. SSFC stretched it WAY too far here and there’s simply no way to get around that.
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“You really want to deny funding to LITERALLY the most successful group on campus?”
You cannot take a groups stance or history on campus into account when making decisions.
Thanks. Goodbye.
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This is absolutely ridiculous. WISPIRG is one of the most effective and active student organizations on campus. To deny them funding is severely going to limit the amount of student activism on campus.
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Expanding the application of the 75% rule to WISPIRG this year (as opposed to every prior year the rule has been in place) veers way into “arbitrary and capricious” territory. This will come back to haunt SSFC.
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I too like to make vague comments about something coming back to haunt the committee without any real knowledge of procedure or rulings on the issue.
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I love how the picture makes Manes look like a classic villian. Anyway though, their job is to make sure the money goes back to benefit the students at the UW. Looking at wispirg, at the very most only 50% of the money would be benefitting students wheras that money can be distributed in ways that goes back to students 100%. Wispirg has good intentions but this is all money out of students pockets and should come back to benefit them 100%.
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It’s about time WISPIRG got their funding cut off. Everyone knows WISPIRG is the liberal counterpart to CFACT, and pretty sure CFACT already lost their funding a few years back…I’m glad SSFC finally woke up and saw the political motives behind WISPIRG. And for any of you who are mad about this move…you should have voted in the ASM elections…last time I checked the SSFC people are ELECTED. Sucks for you!
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The first in a multi-part series where I explore the SSFC decision concerning WISPIRG.
http://northparkstreet.com/2010/09/a-just-denial-part-i/