The University of Wisconsin System is declaring victory after a federal appeals court ruled in its favor over the method by which it distributes mandatory student fees to campus organizations.

“There is nothing to appeal. This decision went in our favor,” said Erik Christianson, spokesperson for the UW System. “There are a couple of elements with the criteria regarding how viewpoint-neutrality is determined that still need to be addressed, and the court pointed that out.”

The court’s ruling came on the heels of a separate incident involving the student group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan and its quest to prove that it had been unfairly discriminated against by the Student Services Finance Committee. MEChA was granted a new fee hearing after the Associated Students of Madison Judiciary ruled SSFC had acted in a non-viewpoint-neutral manner.

“It’s important to point out that the system that’s now in place has an appeals process that is appropriate and is working,” Christianson said. “You guys (The Badger Herald) had a story today about MEChA and going through the appeals process. That is the appropriate venue for students if they feel that for some reason the decision made did not ensure viewpoint-neutrality. The MEChA case is a clear example the appeals process is working just how it’s supposed to be working.”

UW Regent Guy Gottschalk said he was glad the UW System was able to defend students’ interests.

“I’m very pleased about it,” Gottschalk said. “The system general counsel has been reviewing the decision, which ran to some 50 pages, to make sure that there were no clauses that were inconsistent with the general verdict. I have not heard anything negative from the system counsel in that regard. I’m pleased that we went to bat for students and their interest in self-governance and we were successful.”

Christianson called the ability for any student to sue the university if they have a rift with funding purely “speculation.”

“We have always believed that our mandatory fee system was constitutional and viewpoint-neutral, as required by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the appeals court decision clearly affirms our position,” Christianson said. “It’s just speculation to be talking about other avenues for students to be filing lawsuits.”

“This is good news for our students and for our longstanding belief that public universities are, and should be, marketplaces for the robust exchange of ideas.”