Long touted as students’ avenue to self-government at the University of Wisconsin, ASM’s authority as a truly viable form of student representative government took a final nail when Chancellor John Wiley reversed a decision to deny MEChA funding.

MEChA took a long and interesting road to funding eligibility. ASM’s Student Services Finance Committee found the organization ineligible to receive seg fees in September 2002; it concluded that the organization’s services were duplicated elsewhere, the organization did not provide significant service components beyond programming and that the organization violated UW System policies.

MEChA next appeared in an appeal in front of ASM’s Student Judiciary, arguing that SSFC members had political motives that interfered with their September decision. Student Judiciary sided with MEChA, issued warnings to members of SSFC, kicked one member off SSFC and awarded MEChA a new eligibility hearing in front of the full ASM Student Council.

MEChA did not have much time to celebrate. The Student Council heard MEChA’s presentation but agreed with the original SSFC decision to deny the group eligibility by a vote of 11 in favor of eligibility, 15 against, and 1 abstention, according to ASM minutes.

According to Wiley’s review of the hearing, three votes in the negative hinged solely on the members’ opinions that MEChA violated UW policy by using seg fees for recruitment and retention efforts, which is covered in a University System policy called GAP 15. Because “university officials opined that any recruitment or retention efforts initiated by MEChA did not violate GAP 15,” Wiley concluded these three votes should be reversed, tipping the balance for MEChA and granting them a budgetary hearing.

Wiley’s reversal of ASM’s decision shows that, while ASM appears to wield the authority to tax and spend through segregated fees, the organization in truth has little or no real say in the final funding of student groups ? currently its only viable claim to true popular authority. If the administration’s mere opinion can trump the painfully arduous analysis of student government, why should ASM exist in the first place? Students need not waste their time holding positions within a meaningless government entity if the Dean of Students Office can ultimately ignore their funding decisions.

Wiley has every right and even the responsibility to serve as a tool for holding seg-fee spending in check. However, since he is vested with this power and now appears ready and willing to dispense it, ASM is reduced to little more than a resume-padder with no real authority to enforce the opinions of its constituents. It seems the 89 percent of students who do not bother to vote in their elections may have been right all along.