We—the members of the Associated Students of Madison Grant Allocations Committee— have spent the last year funding over 300 Registered Student Organizations to host events, travel to conferences and sustain a yearly budget.
Every week we spend hours reading organization applications, listening to hearings, asking questions and thoroughly vetting requests. Following a strict set of guidelines set by the state, the Board of Regents, ASM and our own committee, we work to be as fair and responsible as possible in the allocation of segregated fees.
As members of the committee, the most common question we receive when we talk about Student Council is, “Hey, what does ASM actually do to help the students on this campus?”
We wouldn’t be surprised if this is something you all ponder from time to time. Let us tell you.
This year alone, we have a $550,000 budget to help fund the events, travel and daily operations of many RSOs here on campus.
Gov. Scott Walker proposed his plans Tuesday for the new UW System budget. In that proposal, he asked that allocable student fees, which are distributed by students for students, become optional for students when paying tuition.
In effect, our ability to empower our campus and students in a tangible way, week after week, has come under attack. It also means that other organizations and services meant for students, such as the ASM Bus Pass and the Rape Crisis Center, could disappear.
Walker’s argument is that students should be able to have control over what they do and don’t fund. Yet his proposal will only move students further from that ideal.
Walker says that by letting students opt out of paying allocable segregated fees, they will have more control over what is funded. In reality, letting students opt out of the segregated fee would ensure that nothing is funded.
Without allocable segregated fees, no student organization events, travel or daily operation would be funded through GAC at all. There’s no choice in that, either.
The money we use in GAC is collected and pooled from every student at the university and is distributed to RSOs as event grants, operations grants and travel grants by our committee. When dealing with the money and all the rules that are attached to legal allocation of student fees, we are obligated under oath to operate in a viewpoint-neutral manner. This means we are obligated to treat every student organization the same, regardless of their values and how we might personally feel about them.
And believe us when we say that we have not agreed with the views of every single RSO that has come before us. After all, how could we? We are all individual thinkers and doers with unique passions—but isn’t that what makes this campus so beautiful?
We have approved upward of 300 grants on this campus this year so far. In them, we have seen a stunning showcase of many passionate and diverse opinions.
If the governor wants to argue that students should directly fund the events, travel and other expenses for the student organizations they do care about without having to pay for other things they don’t agree with, this doesn’t accomplish that. All this does is decrease the overall pool of funding that we have to pull from.
If that financial pool goes away completely—which we suspect it will when fees are made optional—then we simply will not have student-run and student-funded events on campus anymore.
So if you are an RSO that has received a GAC event or travel grant, or if you are a student who has attended any event that we have funded on campus, now is the time for you to speak up.
We need to do everything we can to retain our ability as students to promote diverse interests and values on this campus. Our committee is only nine people strong, but the money that could disappear has positively impacted so many more of us.
ASM is hosting a state budget lobby training this upcoming Monday at 7:30 p.m. on the fourth floor of the Student Activity Center. Join us and protect student power at UW-Madison.
This article was written by the members of the Associated Students of Madison’s Grant Allocation Committee, chaired by Ariela Rivkin. What are your thoughts on making allocated fees optional? Would you choose to pay them if you were not obligated to? Please send all questions and comments to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
