Every semester, full-time students on this campus pay $539.52 in segregated fees. Multiply that by all of the students on campus, and nearly $42 million was collected this year. Seventy-eight percent of those fees go to facilities over which students have little oversight. On a campus where shared governance has a strong history, it is a terrible circumstance that students are being ignored in the process of allocating their own money. The Student Services Finance Committee is a board of the Associated Students of Madison that allocates student fees to many student groups on campus, as well as to the four units over which we have limited purview: the Wisconsin Union, University Health Services, Child Care Tuition Assistance and Rec Sports.
Last week, the SSFC voted not to recommend the budgets of Rec Sports and the Wisconsin Union to the chancellor as they were presented to us. We wish to make it very clear that the SSFC wholeheartedly supports the funding of all these units. Rec Sports and Wisconsin Union are vital to this campus, both in the services and employment they provide. However, as stewards of student segregated fees, we are charged with ensuring that students’ money is being spent in the most responsible way possible. If we are not provided the necessary information, we cannot fulfill this duty. This accountability is imperative, especially in budgets that include millions of student dollars. Without a detailed description of the usage of our segregated fees, these units cannot possibly be held accountable to the students that fund them. Therefore our vote to reject the proposed budgets and recommend that segregated fees remain at the same level as last year only reflects our view of the process and not of the groups.
In early December, we entered into good faith negotiations with the chancellor’s office and the units in question, and so far we have failed to reach a resolution regarding how SSFC will be able to receive more information in the future. We suggested a collaborative reevaluation of the current accounting practices so that SSFC can more accurately track where student money is being spent. In response to each separate unit and UW administration declining our request, the SSFC rejected these budget proposals, as a part of our responsibility as stewards of segregated fees.
As we watch further cuts being made to the funding of our education on the state level, we find it impossible to remain voiceless on this issue. Students must have purview over their money, and we must not be ignored in our request to see that our money is being spent responsibly. It is not acceptable to hold bodies receiving the same kind of funding to different standards. In other facets of our fee allocations, student organizations are held to very high accounting standards. It is unreasonable that UW administration has asked us to turn a blind eye to the co-mingling of student segregated fees and other revenue streams that the university takes in. Students deserve better, and it is time that this university stopped asking us to accept any less.
This column was approved by Student Services Finance Committee and authored by the following members:
Sarah Neibart ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science. She is the chair of Student Services Finance Committee.
Laura Checovich ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science. She is a representative on Student Services Finance Committee.
Ellie Bruecker ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and sociology. She is the secretary of Student Services Finance Committee.
