Gov. Jim Doyle spoke about the long-overdue budget before a press conference on the steps of the Memorial Union Tuesday morning. To his left stood four university students whose lack of financial aid stemmed from the unfinished budget, and to his right stood half-a-dozen College Republicans, quietly protesting.
Sometime during the past week, the University of Wisconsin found and e-mailed 33 students who, unlike last year, could not receive the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant, a financial aid package, due to the state's budget impasse. The e-mails informed the students of the impending press conference and encouraged them to stand by the governor for the duration of the conference. State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and the Wisconsin College Republicans immediately denounced the mailings for legal and ethical violations.
WCR cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act when they launched a formal complaint against UW last Monday. FERPA prohibits schools from disclosing education records — in this case, financial aid status — without a student's consent. There are exceptions to this rule; one of them allows schools to disclose records to "school officials with a legitimate educational interest." WCR argued that the list of names and e-mail addresses were not given with legitimate educational interest, but with political interest.
This complaint is largely irrelevant.
Student privacy was not disrupted, and no information was given to the Doyle administration, UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux told a Badger Herald news reporter. Financial aid officers, who have held the addresses ever since the students began receiving financial aid, sent the actual e-mails. FERPA specifically allows financial aid officers to keep student information under the phrase "appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student," just a few bullet points beneath the "legitimate educational interest" clause.
The College Republicans acknowledge their complaint may be rejected as legally unsound. Still, they maintain the e-mails are, if nothing else, an "absolute ethics violation," in the words of WCR Chairman Ryan Wrasse, in Tuesday's Herald. Fellow dissenter Mr. Nass, ever the lover of simile, issued a press release berating Mr. Doyle and UW-Madison for using students "as political pawns" and "as stage props in a partisan political fight."
If the university did encourage its students to attend a political rally, then the College Republicans have a legitimate ethical concern. UW-Madison should not engineer its students' political affiliation; only last Monday, Chancellor John Wiley told the Campus Antiwar Network "we (the university) don't have a political affiliation. … The university simply doesn't have positions on most things that aren't right in our main line of mission, which are education and research," according to a Badger Herald news story. Did the university, then, violate its sole mission of education and research? No, it did not.
By issuing the e-mails, the university's concern lay with funding the education of its students, not with founding support for Mr. Doyle as a political figure. The university wants a speedy resolution to the budget debate in order to support not just its programs, but also its students, many of whom cannot receive financial aid this year due to the immensely tardy state budget.
Mr. Doyle is governor of the state and leader of the executive branch — the branch that is meant to "git ‘er done" when the legislative branch is too busy squabbling. His press conference was meant to urge the Legislature to do just that — get it done — and advertise his soon-to-be-introduced "compromise budget" designed to pass the Legislature much more quickly (whether it will or not is another story, and is not the point).
It is ludicrous to believe that the governor is tainted because he has political associations. Just because Mr. Doyle happens to claim membership to the Democratic Party does not mean the press conference was partisan.
Nevertheless, the College Republicans were unsatisfied with the press conference. After it was over, UW-Madison College Republicans treasurer Mike Hahn critiqued Mr. Doyle for spending too little time discussing the WHEG grant and too much time blasting the Republicans. I mostly disagree.
Doyle did spend very little time on financial aid, though a former WHEG recipient spoke for five minutes before the governor mounted the podium. However, Doyle did not attack the Republicans as a whole; he criticized the few outspoken Republicans in the Assembly and encouraged moderates on both sides to break from the party caucus and work toward a compromise. He may have focused the blame on a few Republican Party members, but he did so in order to push for a faster resolution.
At the end of the press conference, Mr. Doyle turned toward the four students standing behind him, shook their hands and thanked each individually. Then, to the group, said, "Thank you for posing." Were the students there as part of a stunt? Sure. But not a partisan one. The "stunt" supported their own interests. The students, who had chosen to stand by the governor, smiled back.
Jack Garigliano ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in English.
