Every day students make a difference at the University of Wisconsin by participating in campus life, studying hard and working to change the way we view the world.

However, the means to that difficult undertaking often begins with funds students themselves have provided through student segregated fees — a process few students know about and in many cases are relatively indifferent towards.

Student leaders budgeted just over $24 million from "seg" fees this year for some of the most important aspects of student life.

Understanding seg fees has allowed students in the past to make qualified decisions about the future of student life. But without continued understanding from students, many fear the process will fail to succeed as well as it has for almost 80 years.

Where it all started

The first seg fees were established in 1927 by the UW Board of Regents, to help maintain and operate the then newly-built Memorial Union. Over time, new fees were added to the initial set of fees.

"There are lots of policies that have been developed over the years," said Bill Richner, UW Assistant Vice-Chancellor in the Budget Office. Wisconsin was one of the few states that had seg fee policy written directly into state law, Richner added.

That statute, 36.09(5), says students at UW campuses shall have the primary responsibility for the formulation and review of policies related to student life, services and interests.

"Students in consultation with the chancellor and subject to the final confirmation of the board shall have the responsibility for the disposition of those student fees which constitute substantial support for campus student activities," the statute states.

Student money is what helps create a campus atmosphere and generate quality student life, said ASM Student Services Finance Committee Vice Chair Eric Saar.

"It really creates a more welcoming [and] better campus climate," Saar said. "I think it creates a better environment for students to be a part of."

That money begins its journey into various UW pockets when student tuition is paid. Each semester, a portion of tuition costs are allotted to student segregated fees. This year, those numbers will cost students more than $650 each.

Seg fees are then split between two categories: allocable and non-allocable fees. Allocable fees are used to support ASM, student organizations through the General Student Services Fund, the Child Care Tuition Assistance Program and the ASM Bus Program. However, a majority of funds categorized under non-allocable fees are used to support the Wisconsin Union, University Health Services and recreational sports. Non-allocable fees use roughly 78 percent of the money brought in from student seg fees.

In September, GSSF funds are distributed by students on SSFC. Members of SSFC are responsible for listening to budget hearing from various UW student groups in order to properly and fairly distribute the money, and recommendations are passed on to ASM Student Council for final approval.

Other funds, like those for the Union, begin setting their own budgets within specialized committees before they are handed over to SSFC. Again, SSFC passes these recommendations on to ASM Student Council.

In March, SSFC Chair Rachelle Stone, is expected to meet with UW Chancellor John Wiley to present final recommendations. These recommendations are again passed on to the UW Board of Regents along with the university's entire budget. The board will then make its final decision at its monthly meeting in Milwaukee in June.

Should students be required to pay seg fees?

With tuition costs rising dramatically over the past decade, many students have questioned whether they should be required to pay seg fees. In addition, students point to the rise in seg fee costs, excessive amounts of money to certain UW student groups and the dubious nature of how seg fees are distributed.

Patrick Elliot, a former ASM Finance Committee member and now advisor to the UW student group Monkey Hoes, said when he was part of the seg free process he did not mind it as much. However, as an individual now observing the seg free process from the outside, his opinion has changed.

"I wasn't too happy with how money was being given away," Elliot said. "For the most part, I think the money's not used in an efficient way. There's a lot of bias that goes on in the decision process and a lot of red tape for students that [actually] want to get things done."

Elliot's group, Monkey Hoes, is a student organization aimed at offering students an alternative to drinking on the weekends through activities. In addition, it works to make students more aware of segregated fees and how this money is being used.

"Our group seeks to take the role of garden hoe to the dirt that is on this campus," according to the group's description on the UW Student Organization Office website. "ASM this year had an internal budget over $600,000. This money is never seen by most students."

Elliot's concerns over student activism on the seg fee scene is justified since many students are not aware of what seg fees are or how they work.

UW sophomore Nick Lowenberg said he did not think many students were aware of what seg fees were.

"Unless you're told about [seg fees] in some sort of group, I don't think students would know," Lowenberg said. "I think it should be made more clear. There are a lot of people who might have a strong opinion that maybe [the university] shouldn't have this money."

Still, Lowenberg said he felt student groups were important to campus.

"As a student I feel like [student] groups are pretty important," Lowenberg said. "Even though I don't participate, I don't exactly mind paying that money. Everyone, whether or not they want to, can choose to take advantage of the groups."

Other students question the seg fee process altogether.

UW junior Daniel Barker said he would have liked the option to decide for himself what groups and projects receive money.

"I still don't really have an influence on the decisions," Barker said. "It seems maybe a campus vote would work better."

Still, Barker agreed most students are not aware of what seg fees are.

"I think that most students are pretty clueless as to where a lot of their money goes at this university," Barker said.

Students are involved in neither the seg fee process nor the election of their student leaders.

According to the results from the 2005 SSFC fall elections, of 41,000 UW students, only 2,700 cast their votes. The leading vote recipient, Kellie Sanders, received 1,502 votes.

UW senior Peter Wirtala said the current seg free process does not work.

"All you end up doing is having kids who don't use the buses or [student groups], subsidizing the ones who do," he said.

Wirtala added student indifference to the issue of seg fees only poorly prepares students as citizens in the real world.

"On one hand you have kids on ASM, they could have budget meetings and hold committees and get experience and maybe that could be useful to them later on," Wirtala said. "But at the same time the price you pay is that kids get used to the idea that large bureaucracies will take their money and distribute in ways that they never really see."

However, the debate over whether students should be required to pay seg fees is nothing new.

In 1996, Scott Southworth, a former UW law student along with several other right-wing Christian students, sued the university claiming his First Amendment rights were being threatened when the university required him to indirectly support groups that he disagreed with.

Initially, several court levels deemed Southworth's argument worthy, until it reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In one of the most influential decisions in higher education, the Supreme Court overturned the decisions of earlier courts claiming the university had the right to collect mandatory seg fees as long as they did not show bias between groups.

This "viewpoint neutrality" policy became a guaranteed element of ASM and SSFC financial hearings with the institution of recorded hearings and the right of student groups to appeal decisions.