It is quite unsettling to find out that ultimately it is the UW administration, not students, that decides where the $1 million in annually unspent segregated fees will go. Students themselves decide where the money is awarded in the beginning of the process and should have that same power at the end of the process to decide for what this student tax money will be used.

It is ridiculous that students are not currently awarded this privilege and we applaud the Associated Students of Madison for spearheading a resolution that will bring this control back to students.

In the March 2004 ASM elections, students will have a chance to vote on this resolution called “Regaining our Segregated Fee Reserves” in a referendum that will give the Student Services Finance Committee, a group of elected or appointed students, the authority to choose where the leftover money should be spent.

We wholeheartedly urge students to vote “yes” for this referendum to keep student money in the hands of those who actually are students. It is a shame that in the past years this reserve money has been decided at the administrative level, but it is not too late to reclaim the power of students to decide the fate of their own money.