A group of UW-Madison students rallied on Library Mall Wednesday, protesting a new student segregated fee policy that may potentially take away students’ right to control a portion of university fees.
The students were members of a statewide Associated Students of Madison Students’ Rights Campaign in opposition to any new seg fee policy passed by the UW System Board of Regents at future meetings.
The students marched to a meeting of a committee to review the current segregated fee policy commissioned by Regent President Mark Bradley. They sat in on the debate between UW System administrators and student representatives over students’ control of segregated fee dollars.
Rachel Butler, a UW-Madison junior and Students’ Rights Campaign chair, said the decision to re-write the policy is extremely important for all UW-Madison students because they affect campus life in a direct way.
“It’s through segregated fees that we’re able to have the student organizations, the activities, the programming that we want on campus,” Butler said. “And if this new policy passes and isn’t student-friendly we could lose a lot of the Wisconsin experience we have as UW students.”
UW-Madison senior Joe Silberschmidt, who attended the rally, said as a member of the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group, the policy switches directly affect him.
“What really affects us is our ability to be as effective as we are on campus,” Silberschmidt said. “[University funding is] really why we can be such a strong voice for students and on student issues like affordable textbooks and the environment.”
Some student organizations, however, face termination due to a lack of segregated fees.
Earlier this semester, ASM’s Student Services Finance Committee ruled the Jewish Cultural Coalition ineligible to receive university funding.
“We don’t get funding from outside sources—we rely purely on segregated fees,” JCC Chair Alex Sheridan said. “And unless a door is opened for us to restate our case, we face the grim reality that maybe we will not be on campus next year.”
According to Butler, the Regents’ segregated fee committee passed a policy by a vote of five administrators for the policy to four students against the policy to send to UW campus chancellors and student government presidents for comment.
The committee will meet at the end of the month to forward a final policy to the Regents, Butler said.
