Members of student government addressed the ongoing debate surrounding the contracting process for student groups during Monday night’s meeting.

During the Student Services Finance Committee meeting, Associate Director of the Office of Administrative Legal Services Nancy Lynch spoke before the committee and fielded questions regarding the contracting process debate.

Lynch said the contracting process used should adhere to UW System Financial Policy 50, which defines the scope of segregated fees for groups. She said for the process to follow this, it must be centered on funding services rather than specific groups.

“You’re not here to fund a particular organization, but here to see what students want and need,” Lynch said to the committee. “It’s not you reacting to a group, but you saying this is the way we need it to be.”

She said she envisions a procedure in which student government would see what services the student body feels are necessary on campus and then begin a process that would have different groups bid to provide that service.

Rep. David Vines asked why the process which groups with contract status, including Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, have been obtaining funding through in the past is illegal. He said he felt the previous process was legal and that the proposed process would open student government to being sued for viewpoint neutrality violations.

Lynch responded that the past process groups like WISPIRG have used is not illegal but said that in order to more closely adhere to F50, the process should be about funding a service rather than a group’s speech. She added VPN would not be an issue because the group’s viewpoint would not matter because the process would center on services.

Rep. Laura Checovich asked how SSFC could grant eligibility to a group like WISPIRG but tell them “sorry” and not give them the funds it had deemed necessary.

Lynch said right now there is not an appropriate mechanism to grant funds which fall outside the General Student Services Fund and that SSFC does not need to grant groups all of the funds they request.

WISPIRG Chair Matt Kozlowski spoke during open forum and said he was confused as to why the previous contracting process could not continue to be used. In an interview with The Badger Herald, he said the group is not opposed to the campus service process but does not see how it would fit under it.

“As far as WISPIRG is concerned, we don’t feel that (the CSP) is appropriate for us, and we feel there is nothing wrong with the process we’ve been using,” Kozlowski said.

During the meeting, Rep. Weijie Huan was brought before the committee for possible removal as he had incurred three unexcused absences. By SSFC bylaw, this meant he was up for impeachment. After debate, SSFC voted in a 6-5 decision to keep Huan on
the committee.

The committee also unanimously passed the Legal Information Center budget of $35,553 for the 2012-2013 fiscal year after debate and some amendments.

Also during the meeting, Wisconsin Student Lobby presented its 2012-2013 budget to the committee, requesting $45,497. A decision will be reached in SSFC’s next meeting.