In the aftermath of the controversy surrounding various budget proposals passed by the Student Services Finance Committee, members of the Associated Students of Madison sponsored a forum Wednesday to defend the necessity and legitimacy of student fees.
Currently, any group of three or more students who files a proper application can be granted status as a registered student organization. However, only student organizations that provide a “viable, continuous service” to students are allotted budget requests through the General Student Services Fund, which has its budget decided annually by SSFC.
This year, $32.64 of each UW-Madison student’s tuition was allocated to the GSSF.
“Student activism contributes to the mission of the university,” said UW political science professor Donald Downs. “However, because it is essentially a creation of the university itself, it can be abolished at any time without constitutional ramifications.”
Much of the evening’s discussion focused on Southworth v. UW Board of Regents, the landmark Supreme Court decision that found Scott Southworth, a former law student, arguing last year that these mandatory student fees violated students’ First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court ruled against Southworth, albeit with the caveat that segregated fees must be distributed in a “viewpoint-neutral” manner. In December, a U.S. District Court ruled the UW system is not viewpoint-neutral. A U.S. Appeals Court will hear the regents’ appeal later this month.
Currently, a mechanism for formally redressing a grievance against a budget decision that a student or group feels was not made in a viewpoint-neutral fashion does not exist.
“The reality is that there needs to be an outlined appeals process through the student judiciary where complaints can be heard,” said ASM Chair Jessica Miller.
Participants in the question-answer session following Downs’ speech debated the arguments for and against segregated fees. Opponents say the fees are a form of compelled speech and that students should not have to fund a politically active group whose views they do not support.
“If a group feels their budget decision was unjust or too low, they have five days to appeal that decision back to the SSFC,” Miller said.
But proponents of seg fees say it is important that the university be a cauldron for all viewpoints, popular or not.
At 7 p.m. tonight in Memorial Union the ASM General Council will hear, and possibly amend, SSFC’s final budget tally, well over $2.5 million in size.
