The University of Wisconsin announced Thursday it reached a settlement with the UW Roman Catholic Foundation over a discrimination lawsuit filed in November over the group's funding.
The claim alleged UWRCF did not receive fair and viewpoint-neutral treatment when it was denied eligibility by the Student Services Finance Committee.
Under the terms of the settlement, Chancellor John Wiley agreed to finally approve $253,274 in student-segregated fee funding for the group as part of a budget to be forwarded to the UW System Board of Regents this summer.
In addition to dropping its case with the U.S. Department of Justice, UWRCF agreed to make a structural change within its organization by cutting ties from St. Paul's University Catholic Parish and not seeking funding for any religious services, such as weddings.
David French, attorney for UWRCF and senior council for Alliance Defense Fund in Tennessee, said the settlement contained two "enduring virtues" in its fairness and sustainability over time.
"The Roman Catholic Foundation is enjoying equal rights with every other group on campus, regardless of its religious viewpoints," French said. "It also creates a framework for settling these issues in the future."
French added the split from St. Paul's would clear up a great amount of confusion with funding decisions.
Casey Nagy, Wiley's chief of staff, said the settlement would help both parties in the future.
"We're happy that all the issues were resolved in a way that we'll be able to move forward in a really positive way, and that's to everybody's benefit," Nagy said. "They worked very hard on language that would help guide decision-making on possible points of tension in the future."
UWRCF spokesperson Tim Kruse said the group had hoped to separate the student organization from St. Paul's for some time but were required to wait until pending legal actions were complete.
"The chapel is now run by a separate foundation — there's no reason it has to be that way but it complicated things for a lot of reasons," Kruse said. "Now it's separate, and is a nice clean break from our other religious activities with a priest and other sacramental actions."
When asked about future legal actions against UW, French said he hopes this was the last suit and is confident in the organization's bylaw changes last month, which appeased a federal district court judge by installing a student-run board of directors.
Kruse, however, said he will continue to fight for full-time staff funding — which he says other student organizations on campus are funded for — in addition to off-campus rent, which will be addressed at a Board of Regents meeting this summer.
Now that the discrimination case has been dropped, Nagy said he is satisfied with the constructive changes that have been made.
"In general, you always try to resolve disputes through discussion, and sometimes discussion doesn't work," Nagy said. "In this case, we had the opportunity to have other discussions within a legal decision — it's a positive outcome."
