In honor of our 40th anniversity, every Wednesday The Badger Herald is running classic editorials from our archives. Today we offer an editorial board statement from March 23, 2000, the day after the United States Supreme Court, in Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin v. Scott Southworth, unanimously ruled that our student segregated fee allocation system was constitutional. The Editorial Board acknowledged and accepted the decision while cautioning the Student Services Finance Committee.

So this is it. Judgment day has come and gone and the U.S. Supreme Court has stated unanimously that the University of Wisconsin’s segregated fee system conforms to the letter of constitutional law. The critical mass of students, campus leaders, university officials and supporters of the seg fee system nationwide deserves a hearty round of applause for its dedicated commitment to attaining what to most seemed an impossible victory.

Once the requisite rounds of backslapping and congratulatory toasts are dispensed with, however, some institutional soul-searching is most definitely in order.

However myopic Southworth’s opponents claim he may be, it’s fair to argue a solid portion of the campus population sees something in his argument, that they too see a disproportionately leftist slate of groups receiving the lion’s share of student fees.

In so many words, the court stated, so goes life in a representative democracy.

While the apathetic, non-voting majority — increasingly vocal in its disdain for the tactics of many of these groups on these very pages — is largely to blame, ASM shares blame as well. And when all is said and done, what have we learned?

Two things, we hope.

First, an increasingly disgruntled student body, having been bombarded with figures detailing the astounding amount of money controlled by ASM, needs to stop heckling from the sidelines and get in the action. Yesterday’s landmark ruling upheld a fee system with the resources to fund groups spanning the entire political and social spectrum. Come out, come out, whereever you are, we urge. The ball, it seems, is largely in your court.

Second, ASM must take concrete steps to revamp the current fee allocation system to ensure neutrality is reflected in every decision handed down by the Student Services Finance Committee. As controversies last fall surrounding many of the committee’s decisions illustrated, a significant number of students on this campus feel ASM does not serve their needs. A good first step would be to outlaw conflicts of interest among committee members themselves. When students are elected to the SSFC, they should not be permitted to request fees from the committee to support a separate group unrelated to ASM.

So savor this victory. You worked hard, played fair and won big. Real big. Then put your heads together, take a sigh of relief and get back to work.