Despite Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow’s effort to prove it did not intentionally violate a student government policy, the student organization was denied funding eligibility for the second time this year at a hearing Monday night.

CFACT was denied General Student Services Fund eligibility by the Student Services Finance Committee early last semester after the committee found the group intentionally violated an Associated Students of Madison policy by failing to return equipment owned by ASM by its due date in 2009.

After an ensuing battle through Student Judiciary, CFACT won another eligibility hearing in front of SSFC.

CFACT President Joshua Smith addressed the policy violation and gave the committee a timeline of the equipment return process during the meeting.

“As soon as we had the list of all the stuff we had to turn in, we promptly returned it,” Smith said.

Committee members were not convinced CFACT’s policy violation was unintentional.

Several committee members raised concerns about a letter between the University of Wisconsin’s branch of CFACT and CFACT National, in which members of the UW branch were told not to return the equipment if they were not certain about who owned which items.

SSFC representative Sarah Neibart said the letter provided evidence CFACT intentionally kept ASM-owned equipment and knowingly committed an ASM policy violation.

SSFC Vice Chair Michael Romenesko said CFACT’s argument the situation was a misunderstanding and that ASM made it hard for the group to comply with the policy was not an accurate portrayal of the situation.

He added groups are required to make inventory lists of items they borrow from ASM and CFACT did not maintain those lists.

SSFC representative Cale Plamann said the group received notice that if they did not return the items on time, it would be considered an intentional violation.

“I am forced to conclude this was an intentional policy violation,” Plamann said.

Smith said in an email to The Badger Herald the committee’s decision ignored the context of the situation.

“I disagree with the decision and I definitely do not think that it is an intentional violation for us not to return their equipment,” Smith said. “At the time … CFACT and ASM did not know who owned what equipment.”

Smith said CFACT will consider appealing SSFC’s decision to Student Judiciary, but a final decision has not been made.

If CFACT does appeal the decision, SSFC would have two eligibility decisions floating in limbo as the end of its session nears.

Last week, SSFC Chair Matt Manes said he had entered discussions with the UW Office of Administrative Legal services, in which they generated the suggestion to extend the current committee’s session to finalize the GSSF eligibility decisions for CFACT and Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group.

This week, the committee discussed having Chancellor Biddy Martin handle the last two GSSF eligibility decisions.

Manes said the decision would primarily rest on how Student Judiciary rules on the groups’ potential appeals.

“It is fluid right now,” Manes said. “We are continuing to weigh our options and assess the situation as it continues.”