[media-credit name=’MATTHEW KUTZ/Herald Photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]The Associated Students of Madison overwhelmingly approved budget eligibility for the highly contested University of Wisconsin Roman Catholic Foundation Wednesday.

After being denied by the Student Services Finance Committee twice and subsequently suing the committee in the Student Judiciary, UWRCF was finally found eligible to receive student funding for the 2006-07 school year.

After reviewing the organization's past grievances and bylaws, student council members found UWRCF to be both unique and inclusive to all students on campus — an aspect of the group that has been a source of heated debate throughout its struggle for eligibility.

Following the decision, UWRCF Senior Operations Officer Beth Czarnecki, who answered numerous tough questions from council members throughout the meeting, said she felt "just awesome," adding a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

"It's just great to … have this done," she said. "It's such a long process, and now to feel I can go home and rest and know that we don't have to deal with eligibility anymore."

Yet Czarnecki said she felt she was slightly mistreated by SSFC members throughout the process.

"I felt that there perhaps was some hostility," she said. "I got slightly annoyed with the repeated questions over and over. … The questions were asked so many times, it got difficult to answer them over and over again."

UWRCF Director of Development and Small Groups Tim Kruse said he was "very gratified" and "grateful" to the council for its decision to continue funding for the organization.

"I think it was a long, hard-fought battle for what we believed was our rights and justice," he said.

Kruse added while there was no "malicious intent," he believes it was difficult for SSFC members to originally get past the religious orientation of the group and view it on equal grounds with other organizations on campus.

ASM Chair Eric Varney said the foundation made a "good presentation," adding while the process did "take too long," the council handled the case well in the end.

"I think the council made a good decision, and I definitely agree with the council," he said.

Varney added he was "kind of surprised at how unanimous" the decision was for such a hotly debated issue.

"I think it was definitely unexpected," he said. "But, yes, it was a fitting end. It's good to see that they ultimately got what they wanted."

Also at the meeting, ASM passed a resolution to create a hiring committee for "The ASM Foundation," a non-profit organization geared to help raise private funding for student-governance campaigns and causes.

"I think it's a great thing," Varney said. "It's going to provide more power to the student body."

Aside from fund-raising capability, another objective of the ASM Foundation is to possibly employ members of the organization currently under the Office of the Dean of Students. Because ASM occasionally engages in activities that may conflict with various administrators' viewpoints, members of the organization are attempting to bring further independence to the organization by taking employees — two, to be exact — out from under the ODOS umbrella.

Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam seemed approving of the foundation, stating she thinks it will give students "more flexibility."