Next week, we will all have the opportunity to vote in the ASM
elections. While usually these elections are meaningless, this year
the elections are important because a group of students, primarily
with the Badger Party, have collected approximately 4,000 student
signatures to place an important referendum on the ballot.

The referendum will ask students whether the allocable portion
of seg-fees should be required or optional.

A lot of myths have been floating around about this referendum
question, so I thought it would be appropriate to address some of
them here.

Myth #1: An opt-out system is in violation of the U.S.
Supreme Court decision Southworth v. UW Board of
Regents.

UW System President Katherine Lyall even said she believed this
myth was true.

But it is simply false. Other universities, including the
University of Minnesota, have an opt-out system, and they have yet
to be sued for violating the Supreme Court’s decision. No one has
sued these other universities because in the Southworth
decision, the Supreme Court explicitly held, “If a university
decided that its students’ First Amendment interests were better
protected by some type of optional or refund system it would be
free to do so.”

As students are responsible for the funding decisions of
seg-fees, it is now students who will decide next week whether
their First Amendment interests will be better protected with an
opt-out system.

Myth #2: Everyone would opt-out and these organizations would
be ruined

This is also false. Studies of other opt-out schools have found
only about 30 percent of students opt-out from paying this fee.
Some organizations receive hundreds of thousands of dollars, so if
they lose even 30 percent of their funding, they will still have
plenty of money to provide their “services.”

Each student would be allowed to see how much they would be
paying for a student organization and then determine whether that
group is offering a service to the campus. This forces funded
organizations to truly be held accountable. If they are getting
their service and message out to campus, students will be
appreciative and will continue paying for that service. If they are
not providing a service to students, then the group can only blame
itself for not keeping its promise to students.

Myth #3: The Union, UHS, Rec Sports, Bus Pass, Distinguished
Lecture Series and all the smaller organizations will lose their
funding

This is utterly false. The Union, UHS, Rec Sports and bus pass
are part of the non-allocable portion of seg-fees, meaning their
funding will not be affected in any way. And the Distinguished
Lecture Series falls within the Union budget, so we will still be
able to go listen to all those moderately famous speakers who come
to campus each year.

All the small organizations that receive operations, event and
travel grants from the ASM Finance Committee are also not affected.
This opt-out system would only affect 23 student organizations that
receive approximately $3 million dollars out of the $3.4 million or
so ASM distributes in total. Yes, 23 organizations receive $3
million of your money.

*****

The seg-fee system has been broken since ASM’s founding nine
years ago. ASM has had those nine years to work on the system,
change the system and make the system more accountable. ASM has
failed. They have made some adjustments that unquestionably improve
the system from its original form, but they have not come close to
true reform.

The money wasted by some of these 23 organizations each year is
simply egregious. Organizations have taken needless trips around
the country, including going to resorts in Wisconsin to spend time
with fellow UW-Madison students. Organizations have spent our money
on thousands of dollars worth of T-shirts and have “double dipped”
on hourly timesheets. Students have even used our money to purchase
pornographic videos, swordfish dinners in New Orleans and personal
long-distance phone calls.

These are only some of the abuses some organizations have
committed. With the exception of one of the examples I have named,
no punishment or action has been taken with regard to such
abuse.

Productive student organizations are being put into a group with
a few expensive bad apples. Those organizations will not be
effected greatly though, because we as students will recognize the
value of these organizations and will continue to give them our
money.

Tuition is going up and college is getting more expensive. But
every dollar counts, and there is nothing “marginal” about more
than $75 a year per student. Seg-fees have been rising each year by
astonishing rates. In 1995-96, we were talking about only $12 per
student; now it is more than six times that amount. If they chose
to do so, students here for four years could easily save over
$300.

I am not advocating that all groups should be de-funded. We must
simply force these 23 organizations that ask for tens of thousands
and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to be accountable to
the student body they allegedly “serve.” Most of them will likely
rise to the challenge. Better services mean a more valuable
education and experience while at UW-Madison.

Vote yes to an opt-out system in next week’s ASM elections.

Matt Modell ([email protected]) is a senior
majoring in journalism and political science. He sits on the CFACT
regional Board of Directors. CFACT is one of the 23 organizations
that receive allocable seg-fees.