The University of Wisconsin Student Judiciary held the first hearing Wednesday to consider a lawsuit filed by the UW Roman Catholic Foundation against the Student Services Finance Committee for repeatedly denying them student segregated-fee funding for the 2006-07 academic year.
According to 13 criteria the SSFC uses to evaluate funding, the finance committee declared in September the UWRCF is not entitled to a renewal of funds due to its failure to "completely and accurately" fill out its eligibility application, thus failing to give "proper written governing documents."
However, representatives of the UWRCF argued the SSFC violated the use of the word "proper" by defining it as "consistent with day-to-day operations" without observing the group's activities each day.
The Student Judiciary did not reach a decision Wednesday but is required to reach a consensus within five days.
The UWRCF has used the same bylaws since 1907 and, until this year, has been continuously approved. But this year, the SSFC claims to have changed its mind after noticing the use of "Catholics" in the UWRCF's bylaws, subsequently violating the 12th criteria for evaluation, which demands all UW students must be able to join the group.
The foundation rebutted that the use of the word "Catholic" in its bylaws encompasses more than just that specific group, and non-Catholics can also identify with the beliefs and practices of the religion.
"The UWRCF should be more careful to have bylaws that do not contrast the practices of their organization," SSFC Vice Chair Eric Saar said.
After its first denial, the UWRCF removed the use of "Catholics" in its bylaws, yet was once again denied by the finance committee during a second eligibility hearing. Committee members said they turned down the group again, citing new reasons.
"Many members who voted against the UWRCF in the first decision voted down again for very different reasons," Saar said. "For example, one member voted 'no' against Criteria 12 on Sept. 22 because of violation of UW System policy and then, on Sept. 29, voted 'yes' on Criteria 12 but no on Criteria 10 — the failure of the group to completely and accurately [fill out its eligibility application]."
However, the criteria SSFC uses conflicts with ASM bylaws, something Saar admitted he did not know.
UWRCF members said they were unfairly judged, since “Criteria 12” is not listed in the ASM bylaws.
UWRCF senior office manager Beth Czarnecki argued because SSFC is not a judiciary body, it is prohibited from interpreting student organizations' bylaws, adding if the committee wants to interpret bylaws, it must create its own formal process.
"The SSFC are changing their criteria so we don't know what we're being evaluated on," Czarnecki said.
Saar said he believes both UWRCF and SSFC have the right to determine the meaning in their own bylaws; however, the question at hand was whether SSFC was attempting to interpret UWRCF's bylaws.
