University of Wisconsin students will vote on whether they want to have the option of adding $1 in tuition each semester to support a group of Iraqi students to attend UW, Student Judiciary decided Thursday.
Campus Antiwar Network petitioned the Student Judiciary at their March 3 meeting to add a non-binding referendum to the Associated Students of Madison spring ballot that would support the Iraqi Student Project with a refundable fee of $1 per semester.
At their last meeting, SJ hesitated to approve the referendum because the wording CAN provided was unclear as to whether the ISP would require segregated fees, Chief Justice Sol Grosskopf said.
?Our concern at the last meeting was that perhaps the supporters of this resolution thought that it was a binding resolution that, if passed, would force payment of tuition money to the scholarships [of Iraqi students], which is banned under university procedure,? Grosskopf said.
Grosskopf added SJ was concerned the referendum might bind ASM into some kind of legal contract. Because the group did not have enough information, CAN was invited to Thursday?s meeting to explain whether segregated fees would be involved.
However, UW sophomore Sam Finesurrey, a member of CAN, said the group understands that segregated fees cannot cover the ISP.
?This would be non-binding,? Finesurrey said. ?We want to allow this to be a voice for the students. Students are clearly interested in speaking on this. We want to bring this voice of the student body [shown by the results] to the Board of Regents.?
Grosskopf said SJ decided to approve this referendum because the group made it clear they had no intentions of making this a binding referendum.
?Now we realize that this is a non-binding referendum that is solely going to be used to get a gauge of the student?s position on such an idea,? he said. ?It will be used simply as a position finder of the students.?
Student Elections Committee Chair Trenell Darby said he would like to see more clarification on this for students voting in the upcoming elections.
?I do have a problem with the language of this,? Darby said. ?I just wish that it stated that it wasn?t for seg fees. ? I feel like this can be misconstrued.?
Grosskopf said they will try to make it very clear to voters that this is a non-binding referendum.
?All voting is done electronically over computers,? Grosskopf said. ?My guess is that we will probably attach [the explanation] by what votes mean.Hopefully we can explain what a yes vote means, what a no vote means and what the non-binding nature means.?
According to UW freshman Jenny Wustmann, a CAN member, the ISP is a project taking place on college campuses across the country and is in response to the state of education in Iraq.
