In a decision released Thursday night, Student Judiciary denied a complaint from a student organization and affirmed the decision of a body of the University of Wisconsin student government.
The judiciary decision ruled in favor of Student Services Finance Committee regarding a complaint filed against the committee by Collegians For a Constructive Tomorrow. With this ruling, the body affirmed SSFC’s denial of 2012-13 fiscal year funding eligibility for CFACT.
SSFC previously reached this decision because the committee determined CFACT had incurred an intentional policy violation and violated UW System financial policy.
CFACT’s complaint alleged SSFC committed a viewpoint neutrality violation when it denied the group funding this past October, citing “a continued pattern of viewpoint discrimination against CFACT.”
CFACT and SSFC have a long history of legal battling, most of which has revolved around an incident when CFACT did not return Associated Students of Madison-owned property.
In the complaint, CFACT claimed confusion surrounded the returning of the equipment. SJ Chief Justice Kathryn Fifield said this was not relevant to SJ’s decision-making process since the judicial body’s job was to evaluate SSFC’s process.
Fifield said it is important to note the case solely examined SSFC’s process in its decision to deny eligibility. She said although CFACT brought up past facts pertaining to the equipment returning issue, these were not relevant as they had already been decided on in previous cases.
“[CFACT] has made this pitch to SJ more than once,” Fifield said. “We’ve attempted each time to make sure that SSFC made the decision correctly, and there is no evidence that SSFC made the decision rashly or incorrectly.”
CFACT’s complaint alleged that SSFC used non-viewpoint neutral criteria in its eligibility decision, but the judiciary’s ruling found this invalid since SSFC followed procedural methodology in its examination of the group.
“It is the role of SSFC members to use their discretion to analyze the eligibility of an RSO,” the ruling said.
With this ruling, CFACT is not eligible for General Student Services Funding for the next fiscal year.
