Every week campus newspapers are filled with news articles,
opinion pieces and even the occasional editorial cartoon about the
antics of Associated Students of Madison, our student
government.

The majority of the news generated and controversy surrounding
ASM does not involve the issues that will affect your life on a
daily basis but are instead about the allocatable segregated fees
that are included on your tuition bill.

Seg fees have had their 15 minutes of fame multiple times,
having been debated all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
For student government to survive and maintain any kind of
effectiveness, it is time for the issue to be resolved so liberals
and conservatives alike can move forward to work together on issues
that will improve student life on campus.

Because seg fees dominate student government business, little
else is accomplished. The in-fighting is a turn-off such that few
people take much interest in the broader possibilities of student
government. Seg fees only serve special interests, not the student
body at large. Both liberals and conservatives run for election on
the fee issue alone, with little regard to any other initiatives
student government may undertake.

Conservatives run on the promise to fight increases in taxes on
your tuition bill by keeping seg fees down. Liberals run with the
promise to take care of all the special-interest groups and usually
come though with thousands, or sometimes even millions, of dollars
for their pet causes.

Liberals in ASM were adamant about protecting seg fees, citing
state statute 36.09(5), which mandates students have a voice in the
governance of the university. It is time to truly give students the
ultimate choice and then move on to real issues of broad student
concern.

The student council should vote to place a binding referendum
question on the spring ASM election ballot asking students what
funding system should be in place. Allow students to decide if
everyone should be required to pay seg fees, or whether we should
go to a different system, like an opt-in system, where a student
can check a box on their tuition bill certifying they would like to
pay this additional tax.

The U.S. Supreme Court said it is unconstitutional to have a
referendum deciding whether individual groups receive funding
because that method is not viewpoint-neutral and allows the
majority to silence groups in the minority, while furthering their
own causes.

It is, however, perfectly constitutional to have a referendum
question to decide how the funding process will be
administered.

In fact, this is a true exercise of state statute 36.09(5),
allowing 40,000 voices to be heard on how their seg-fee system will
work.

By giving this voice to the students through referendum, it will
allow for more students to run for student council who care about
student issues, not just fees.

This semester ASM is talking about increasing peer-advising
programs. These programs can be particularly helpful to freshmen
and new students on this large and sometimes intimidating
campus.

ASM will also lobby for keeping College Library open 24 hours a
day during the academic year, providing students with diverse
sleep, work and mid-term schedules a quiet place to study with
access to the millions of resources available through the campus’
library system.

Sub-committees are also looking at tenants’ rights issues and
protecting students against phony and sometimes illegal deductions
that some landlords take out of tenants’ security deposits. City
and campus officials have made repeated attempts to attribute
nearly all of the city’s problems with lawlessness to student
drinking, and students are trying to combat those myths and protect
drink specials at area bars and restaurants. Campus safety issues,
increased after-hour parking around libraries and improvements to
exercise facilities and unions are also areas of concern to
students.

These issues all directly affect student-life on this campus,
and yet they are bogged down over petty, often personal disputes
regarding segregated fees. Only when student-government officials
stop focusing on money and special interest groups — this means
they need to start by making huge deductions to their own stipends,
many of which are now over $3,000 a year — will legitimacy and
respect return to student government.

Being on student government should not be about getting a nice
paycheck, or getting large sums of money for your pet causes. We
should want people to be in student government because they
actually want to improve the standard of living on this campus for
everyone. This is a noble vision and yet far beyond the
comprehension of most on student council. They rather “protect the
student voice” by not letting students’ voice their opinion.

Matt Modell ([email protected]) is a senior
majoring in journalism and political science.