Opinion

Opt-out proposal lacks substance

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Currently phrases like “opt-out system” and “student fee autonomy” have been floating around campus connected to words such as “student choice,” “saving money” and “accountability for student organizations.” As the current vice chair of the Student Services Financial Committee (SSFC), a branch of our student government that scrutinizes student service organization’s budgets and activities, I would like to clear up the confusion about our current system and address the problems with the proposed opt-out system.

Currently, we have a system that works. SSFC is student directed, student operated and student controlled, scrutinizing piles of budgets and questioning organizations from 6 p.m. till the early hours of the morning three and four nights a week. Students on SSFC are your peers, your friends, your fellow students. All students have the opportunity to get involved.

This is important work, and students make a serious commitment to being fiscally responsible while providing for a vibrant and active student community. We recognize the system is not perfect and can even be contentious. However, it is also the only system that the federal and Supreme Courts have ruled constitutional and fair.

SSFC may have problems, but the proposed opt-out system does not rectify those problems; it simply creates more. To date, there has been no substance as to how this proposed system would be implemented. For instance, how much information would be provided to students to make educated decisions? A sentence? Endless pages of information? How would this information be distributed to the student body? Who would decide what dollar amount is on the bill? A fee committee? The organization itself? How would that figure be decided?

Couldn’t an organization in which half of the students opt-out of simply double the fee amount? How would you protect against “free riders,” those students who don’t pay for a service but still use it? How would you limit a service to only those who pay for it? Would all organizations or services now have to take place behind closed doors? If you chose to opt-out of everything you possibly could, how much would you actually save?

This also leads us to ask questions about if current organizations or services deemed essential to the campus community don’t receive sufficient funding to cover operational expenses. Such as the Union, Rec Sports? Or the bus pass? The university could add a fee to fund “essential” organizations and services and take these decisions completely out of the hands of students. Would the Union then be under the control of the administration? You’re still paying for the organization or service but now without any student control or input.

Finally, this proposal does not address accountability of student service providers. Supporters of the opt-out system say, “Scrap the current system,” but their proposal provides no audit, no printout of organizational spending. How are students supposed to assess if funds are being used correctly if they don’t have the information they need to do so?

The current system must be improved, and it must include greater accountability measures. I propose that an oversight committee of students is created for the purpose of ensuring the integrity of the system. They should hold intermittent investigations in order to make sure that funds are being spent appropriately. SSFC or the Student Judiciary must be empowered to punish student groups if they are found to be misappropriating funds. I ask those who are prepared to bring real solutions to real problems to step up to bat. Please do not hide behind emotional rhetoric because that only detracts from the debate.

Jason Davis (jasondavis@wisc.edu) is vice chair of SSFC. He is majoring in sociology and business.