Seven University of Wisconsin College Republicans held an eat-in 12:30 Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol Rotunda next to students convening a hunger strike to protest what they call the “hypocrisy” of the Associated Students of Madison.
Students held signs saying “Feast for Lower Fees,” “They’re not eating because they’re full of B.S.” and “End the ASM Hypocrisy.”
“Basically, [the eat-in] was meant to have some sort of action more than just press release — to show ASM is going to raise our segregated fees, the only part of our tuition bill we really have [control over],” College Republicans Chair Nicole Marklein said.
Students from around the state have been participating in a hunger strike since Monday. Madison students asked legislators to roll back tuition 37.5 percent to what it was two years ago. ASM remains one of the largest groups participating in the strike.
ASM and the Student Services Finance Committee are responsible for recommending how students’ segregated fees are maintained. This includes the distribution of segregated fees to student services and organizations registered with UW. Additionally, segregated fees are required by UW, giving ASM some control over how high or low the overall bill from the university could become.
However, the College Republicans claimed ASM has been both irresponsible and unfair with their maintenance and the result has damaged UW tuition.
“Segregated fees make up over $600 of every full-time student’s tuition, and the amount has risen steadily in recent years,” according to a release.
College Republican members claimed ASM also unfairly gave money to “liberal” groups.
Jeremy Wick, UW freshman executive College Republican board member, said this was clear in the way ASM distributed more funding to Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, what he calls a liberal environmental group, than to the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a self-proclaimed market-drive environmental group.
SSFC granted WISPIRG $94,820, while CFACT received $78,141 in the 2004-05 fiscal-year budget.
However, ASM Finance Chair and SSFC member Barbara Kiernoziak said the College Republicans need to look over SSFC records.
“Some of the larger budget increases for ’06-07 were for CFACT,” Kiernoziak said. “Our actions don’t support their claims.”
College Republicans also disagreed with how ASM refunded segregated-fee reserves. ASM gave nearly $757,000 of a total $1.2 million projected excess in segregated reserve fees back to UW students Tuesday night.
“My ideal … situation would be [a] 100 percent refund to the students that paid it, [instead of] rolling back seg fees a little bit,” Marklein said. “[It could have] definitely [been] more responsible than other things they could have done with it.”
However, Kiernoziak said it was impossible to give a 100 percent refund.
“There are minimal reserve levels required by the UW System. There is a set minimum we have to keep in case [there is an emergency],” Kiernoziak said.
Kiernoziak added another reason ASM did not reallocate funds was because there were students at UW who had contributed to the excess for four years.
“For us to repay all of that in one semester would mean freshmen would get into the same refund seniors would.”
