Engineers Without Borders petitioned Student Judiciary Wednesday for a hearing to overturn the Student Services Finance Committee’s decision to deny the group funding, claiming the verdict was biased and lacked viewpoint neutrality.
SSFC Chair Kurt Gosselin said SSFC was simply doing its job and applies its criteria objectively to each organization.
“Eligibility is not about punishment and reward,” Gosselin said. “Eligibility is about applying these 19 criteria in a fair, consistent manner. There is no punishment or discipline of a student organization.”
According to EWB President Gavin Weir, SSFC has continued to punish the organization for previous policy violations, which further violates viewpoint neutrality. He defines this as making a decision based on the criteria alone and not altering decisions based on previous acts.
“EWB is still being punished by previous offenses,” Weir added. “They are using new criteria that weren’t used with other groups. They considered EWB’s mission, which is not allowed, and they expressed bad faith before the vote.”
Gosselin said the criteria have remained the same since May 2008, and it has been applied equally to all student organizations. He added the group failed to meet the direct service requirements, which qualified their rejection.
The Legal Information Center was denied funding Sept. 18 for failing to meet three of the 19 criteria, and appeared Oct. 17 before the SJ to challenge the decision.
SSFC Legal Council Shawn Shukla said LIC was denied funding due to an incomplete application, lacking government documents and failure to demonstrate fiscal responsibility.
Rufino Gaytan, a third-year law student and the co-director of LIC, said he hoped the hearing would prove they were denied funding on unreasonable grounds and lacked viewpoint neutrality. Gaytan said though the application was partially incomplete, this was not a justified reason to refuse funding.
Gosselin pointed out SSFC has not received a late application over the past two years, adding the committee does not hold one criterion above another when considering their funding eligibility.
“They are all of equal weight, and that’s why just failing to live up to one of them is reasons for denial,” he said.
The Student Judiciary is expected to publish a decision in approximately two weeks.
