For those of you returning to campus, welcome back! For those of you new to our great university, brace yourself. You will be confronted with a long, exciting and expensive academic career. And being the keen observer that you are, I am sure you noticed that in addition to your hefty tuition bill, you had a student activity fee of $428 on your tuition invoices. The question you are surely asking yourself now is: What is this mysterious fee?

This is just the first installment in a series of columns dedicated to helping you answer this question for yourself. As Student Segregated Fees Committee leadership, we understand the role that students must take in the segregated fee system. So let us be your guide along this toilsome path.

Before we can begin our journey, we must be well-trained. Let's start off with something light: the biggest problem with segregated fees.

The biggest problem with segregated fees is that people don't know much about them. Seriously! Even those who claim to be experts still do not understand the dynamic range of activities funded by this fee. You will be bombarded with misleading and inaccurate information concerning segregated fees and the services they provide all year, from every angle. The most important thing to remember when listening or reading the hype is that these fees are yours! You need to be informed in order to "sift and winnow" through the muck.

The facts:

• This year UW-Madison students will pay over $32 million in segregated fees.
• There are two funding distinctions: allocable and nonallocable.
• Nonallocable fees pay for University Health Services, the Wisconsin Union, recreational sports and child care services.
• Nonallocable fees represent $25.5 million, or 79 percent, of segregated fees ($621 per student per year).
• Students only have an advisory role in how this money is spent; the chancellor has the sole approval power for these budgets.
• Allocable fees pay for the Associated Students of Madison, the bus pass, travel and event grants for student organizations and the General Student Services Fund (GSSF).
• GSSF funds 23 groups that provide services for students and by students including: tutoring services, diversity programming and education, student radio, sexual health education, legal counseling and much more.
• Allocable fees represent $6.9 million, or 21 percent, of segregated fees ($168 per student per year).
• Students historically have had primary responsibility over this portion of segregated fees through the Student Services Finance Committee (SSFC).

Why you should care:

• This makes up 10 percent of your tuition bill ($32 million, folks!)
• It pays for the gambit of student services available to you on this campus.
• It is the only pot of money that students have any control over on this campus.
• Segregated fees promote the marketplace of ideas by encouraging a rich campus dialogue, support provided to student organizations, GSSF student services and efforts by ASM to meet the needs of students.
• Our right to distribute these fees was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• When students don't demand transparency in how their fees are spent, they lose out by steep increases in how much they are charged each year to fund the administrative segregated fee hegemony.

The numbers speak for themselves. Segregated fees are going up $126 from last year. One hundred percent of this increase is a gift from the administration sweetly tacked onto your bill. In fact, the student-controlled portion (allocable, remember) dropped $2.10 per year. This is not surprising considering the student-controlled portion is the most highly-scrutinized money flowing through the veins of the university. Yet, even the small pot that students have control over (21 percent of segregated fees) is quickly deteriorating. Students in the state of Wisconsin have the legislative right over the disposition of their segregated fees, but this right has been under fire as of late.

Some may remember ASM's off-campus rent appeal. What few students realize is that the appeal focused on the administration's right to formulate unilaterally allocable segregated fee policy. Remember, it is rarely about the "what" and more about the "how." Students have the right to make sure that the buck stops with them with segregated fees. When students control the purse strings, it is easy to hold accountability. We have options to make sure we are doing a responsible job, such as electing representatives to SSFC and ASM, speaking at SSFC open forum and lobbying SSFC members.

A continued erosion of power on behalf of the administration certainly will not make college more affordable. It will only detract from the students' ability to allocate their money. This simply highlights the importance for student awareness and support in working to improve this system. We encourage all students to investigate it, criticize it, love it and learn to use it. Most importantly, students must demand that they are the primary guardians of these important funds.

Alex Gallagher ([email protected]) is chair of SSFC and Katrina Flores ([email protected])is vice chair of SSFC.