In a meeting punctuated with profanity, hot debate and high emotion, student funding was denied to MECHA, a student Chicano group, at the Student Services Finance Committee hearing Thursday night.
SSFC, which approves student-sponsored funding for groups across campus, voted 6-5 to make MECHA ineligible for student funds this fiscal year.
“I am in a state of shock,” said Darrell Balderrama, MECHA leader. “Words cannot express how very disappointed I am in the committee. The decision to not fund us is an obviously racial decision towards MECHA, and a strategic movement to silence the voice of Chicano students.”
SSFC committee members said the decision to deny MECHA funding was based on several factors. A prime source of debate was a recent MECHA newsletter saying “F*ck the white boy.”
SSFC member Aaron Werner, who broached the topic questioned, “How many students are going to feel comfortable going to this group after reading this?”
Gladys Reyes, an SSFC rep and MECHA member, countered, “People are entitled to their own opinion. If you would have read the poem in question and seen why the student felt that way, you may feel differently.”
Reyes cited freedom of speech in her argument.
She continued later by saying, “To base funding on something in a newsletter does not make sense to me. Do you not see what MECHA does?”
SSFC member Tom Baumgartner acknowledged the right to free speech, but added, “They do not have the right to be heard making their speech.”
He objected to approval of the funding, citing concerns over student exclusion and the violation of a neutral viewpoint the committee is dedicated to.
MECHA also faced questions about the recruiting of high school students, its use of a separate media center exclusive to students, and possible fiscal violations.
These concerns, raised by Rep. Ryan Nichols, were categorically denied and defended by Reyes.
Nichols suggested that MECHA integrate with MCSC, to which Reyes replied, “It seems rude to clump everybody together in MCSC. MECHA is a national organization. We have national pull.”
Rep. Rob Welygan disagreed, saying, “That to state that all groups are clumped into MCSC is like saying that Ed Thompson, McCallum and Doyle are all the same because they’re political.”
Shortly before voting on the eligibility decision, the committee voted to limit the comments of Pabitra Benjamin, a MECHA member, to end the lengthy and increasingly heated debate.
Balderrama added later, “We’re not a quiet people. We will appeal. Everyone on this campus always talks about diversity, but no one ever does anything about diversity. Half the things we do, the committee knows nothing about.”
The Diversity Education Specialists also took some light criticism from the committee in their effort to be considered for future funding.
After being asked to explain a late application (an “organizational snafu” according to members), staff member Michael Franklin was asked to explain DES’s role on campus, retention efforts, and the openness of the group’s viewpoints to all ethnicities.
Franklin said SSFC’s inquiries were fair.
“I thought it went good,” said Franklin later. “They’re trying to ask questions they think are valuable and that are valuable to the campus. These students (the committee) are busy. It’s difficult for us all to be on the same page.”
Debates for funding for DES, SAFEride and Vets for Vets will be considered at SSFC’s next meeting Sunday.
The Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, described by Welygan as “one of the strongest presences on campus,” was unanimously approved to receive funding through the 2002-2003 school year.
