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Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Student government concludes semester seeking tuition transparency

Tuition transparency to allow students to understand how UW is spending student money
Student+government+concludes+semester+seeking+tuition+transparency
Anne Blackbourn

In their last meeting of the semester, Associated Students of Madison approved legislation that aims to make the allocation of tuition more transparent.

After going through final updates on ASM chair reports for next year, ASM discussed and approved a new piece of legislation — tuition transparency.

Tuition transparency calls for the university to show how student tuition money is being spent, University Affairs Vice Chair Mara Matovich said.

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Matovich said she started the campaign because no one would tell her where tuition money was going or how it was being spent.

“We know the money goes to faculty, but how much money are they getting? Is the money really being spent on educational materials?” Matovich said.

No student can confidently state where tuition money goes unlike segregated fees, she said. It’s unfortunate tuition is not structured to be as transparent, she said.

ASM Rep. Deena Whitwam voiced her support for the legislation and said she was glad ASM was taking up the issue of tuition transparency.

“I think tuition transparency is just so important and I’m really glad student council is looking to address it,” Whitwam said.

ASM approved of the legislation with a 18-0 vote with no abstentions.

During open forum, ASM representative Katherine Sodeika said ASM misrepresented UW students as a whole by stating the council agreed with the UW student protesters. Furthermore, they said a letter to Chancellor Rebecca Blank stating the protests were a sign of UW’s need for cultural competency signed by the 22nd session of ASM did not represent all members of that council’s views.

Not everyone agreed with the statements made by protesters last week, but ASM tweets about the protest “blanketed” the different views of students on campus by assuming students unanimously supported them, Sodeika said.

ASM Chair Madison Laning took the blame for the criticism of ASM’s tweets and the letter. Laning said she thought the tweets were more representative of students’ opinions on campus and had meant to show ASM’s support of those views by including them in their tweets.

“In my belief, it was a way in which we can include others on campus and I am very sorry if others did not feel that way,” Laning said.

In addition, Laning said she signed the letter as the 22nd session of ASM because she had been unsure of how else to sign it considering the large amount of ASM leadership involved.

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