Love them or loathe them: the Associated Students of Madison took power into their own hands last November, singlehandedly tacking an unprecedented amount of segregated fees onto students’ tuition for next academic year.

The largest gifts went to the Multicultural Student Coalition and the Diversity Education Specialists, who received a bulk total of over $1 million in student fees in order to tackle cross-cultural diversity education on the UW-Madison campus.

The controversial move by the Student Services Finance Committee, which controls seg-fee funding, was justified by MCSC chair Tshaka Barrows and his supporters within the committee as a necessary response to an urgent situation.

“This is a very unique and unusual situation,” Barrows said at the time. “We’re trying to create a group that’s going to have a broad impact on a university that needs that impact.”

But criticism was loud and clear: Some students begged SSFC to spend their money wisely, and when they lost that battle, turned to Chancellor John Wiley and the UW System Board of Regents.

Wiley originally discounted MCSC’s move as redundant. After all, the administration said, the school works tirelessly to support funding for Plan 2008, the administration’s answer to diversity problems.

But when it came down to it, Wiley let the system handle itself. What responsibilities are given to students will stay with students, he said.
The final count finds General Student Services Funding levels will increase to nearly $3 million, up from $1.5 million this year, which means each student will pay an estimated $70 next year in student organization fees.
And with the increased funding for ASM and SSFC’s internal budgets, the latter of which hit record proportions this semester as well, final numbers are sure to more than double in size.