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Chair Matt Manes introduces SSFC

Members of the Campus Women’s Center hugged each other and let out a huge sigh of relief at the student government meeting when they were granted funding eligibility after being denied last year.

The Student Service Finance Committee unanimously voted CWC eligible to receive funds for the next two academic years at their Thursday meeting.

CWC Program Coordinator Rae Lymer said the group is very relieved to have funding.

She added they have spent more than 100 hours working on providing SSFC with documents and information for the hearing process.

“It’s been a very stressful process and I’m looking forward to being a student again,” Lymer said.

The committee debated whether CWC’s support groups counted as a direct service or as a scheduled event.

A direct service cannot be an event or series of events, it must be available for students on request, according to SSFC bylaws.

SSFC representative Eric Ballecer said CWC has demonstrated the support groups are not events because they are made available to students upon request.

SSFC Chair Matt Manes said CWC changed their organization just enough from last year – when they were denied funding – to allow their eligibility this year.

“They retooled their organization just slightly by lowering the time spent on non-direct services, so they were now eligible,” Manes said.

SSFC postponed deciding F.H. King’s eligibility status because there was a question as to whether their programs were aimed primarily at University of Wisconsin students.

SSFC Legal Counsel Tyler Junger said a group must show 75 percent of all the group’s programs are directed at UW students; however, he said there is a contradiction in the bylaws which say this 75 percent may only be aimed at students or groups who are eligible to receive direct services.

A group only needs to spend more than 50 percent of their time on direct services to be eligible for funding, so even if these direct services target the 75 percent of UW students eligible to receive them, this might not equal the 75 percent the group needs for all of its activities.

Junger said as it stands now he has not found any records of the Student Judiciary making a decision on the bylaws.

Junger will make a recommendation to SSFC about the bylaws, Manes said, sometime before next Monday’s meeting.

The Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group also made their case to the committee that they should be eligible for funding.

WISPIRG Chair Rashi Mangalick said their direct service is to provide students a forum to engage in the political process through their training and education programs and their campaign projects.

“Anyone can contact us and request to do some kind of campaign or if there is an issue they want to work on, we can provide them skills to work on the issue,” Mangalick said.

The Badger Aviators did not show up for their scheduled eligibility hearing.

The committee’s decision on Badger Aviators will be announced at next Monday’s meeting.

However, Manes said one of the criteria for groups to receive funding is attending their hearing, which they failed to do.