Sunday night’s Student Judiciary meeting confirmed the Student Service Finance Committee will field one less member at its next round of funding hearings when it denied SSFC member Mark Baumgardner’s appeal to retain his position.
The University of Wisconsin’s Student Judiciary has faced many appeals in recent weeks addressing struggles between Student Service Finance Committee members and student groups unsatisfied with the committee’s eligibility decisions.
At the hearing for the group Movimento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, Student Judiciary found SSFC member Mark Baumgardner guilty of a “malicious viewpoint-neutrality violation,” resulting in his expulsion from the committee.
Baumgardner filed an appeal against the decision and was allowed to keep serving on the committee until the judiciary reached a decision about whether to hear the appeal.
In a vote of 2-0 in favor of denying the appeal, the Student Judiciary succeeded in finalizing Baumgardner’s removal from SSFC.
Student Judiciary members reached the decision after lengthy deliberation, during which Justice Jordan Green insisted on addressing each individual point in the appeal. Chief Justice Jana Kraschnewski disagreed with Green’s suggested approach.
“I think we should just accept the appeal as a whole or reject it,” Kraschnewski said. “I don’t think we should selectively choose which part we accept; that’s a process that should be saved for the actual trial.”
Green disagreed, describing the discussion process as essential to his decision. When Kraschnewski expressed her desire to table the decision until a later meeting because of the time-consuming nature of the discussion, Green said he would say no to a trial.
“If we can’t discuss all of these points, I’ll have to deny the appeal,” Green said.
Baumgardner said he was disappointed by the meeting’s proceedings and “informal manner (in which) business was conducted.”
“I thought they should have been a little more serious about making their decision,” Baumgardner said.
Baumgardner said he is unsure whether he will appeal to the Board of Regents.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do next,” he said. “It will be nice to have more time for other things now that I’m no longer on SSFC.”
