The video — that almost looks like a home movie of someone taking random shots of the University of Wisconsin campus — is detailed, but sketchy.

Two men move from table to table at Memorial Library with clipboards asking students to sign something, and this is the activity bringing scrutiny to a late pitch to change the way students distribute money for student activities.

In the film, cameraman Chris Dols brings the camera in on the clipboards, which hold petitions for a referendum on a segregated-fee opt-out policy, a reform the Badger Party is pushing within Associated Students of Madison.

When petitioners Ryan Nichols and Robert Thelen realized Dols had more than sightseeing on his mind, they stopped balloting. Dols said a policy prohibits anyone from soliciting political alignment on specific school properties.

Library officials denied there is such a policy.

On the tape, Thelen and Nichols both claimed they were unaware of any sort of UW policy against petitioning in the university library system. After Dols told them they were in violation, they promptly left the building.

ASM guidelines require members to uphold any university codes.

The Badger Party, of which Nichols and Thelen are members, is promoting an opt-out system that would enable students to pick and choose which groups, if any, they sponsor with money paid for seg fees.

According to a source within ASM, the matter will be taken to ASM Judiciary and charged a direct and documented violation of university policies.

“It’s a last minute tactic to meet a deadline,” said Student Segregated Finance Committee vice-chair Jason Davis, who added that libraries and dormitory buildings have their own specific regulations, but those rules “are common knowledge.”

“I’m disgusted with the lengths to which certain individuals are willing to go to force their agenda on the student body as a whole,” Davis said.

“I would advise them to be abreast of all election procedures and rules,” he added.

Thelen and Nichols did not respond to phone messages.

The video of the incident shows Nichols and Thelen walking from table to table in the Memorial Library foyer asking students to sign a piece of paper on a clipboard. When they confronted Dols about the camera, he said he was just recording things around campus and asked to see what they were asking students to sign. Thelen showed the camera a copy of the opt-out petition and continued to question him.

After a heated debate in which Dols asked for the name and location of the ASM pair, they both left the building. The video ends there.

Edward Van Gemert, associate director of the general library system, said the two student-government representatives did not violate express.

“What we had a problem with was that students who were studying were being disturbed — borderline harassed — by these people,” VanGemert said. “The library does not have [a rule against balloting] in writing, but we do ask that you communicate with us. It’s a matter of common courtesy.

“We’re more than willing to work with any group, but we do have some rules. Communicate with us ahead of time,” VanGemert said.

The page and movie can be viewed at madison.indymedia.org