The Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee denied the Roman Catholic Foundation-UW-Madison eligibility Monday to receive student segregated funding for the 2008-’10 academic years.
This is the third time this budget cycle SSFC has denied the group eligibility.
SSFC members acknowledged RCF-UW fulfilled many of the requirements for funding but questioned if the group would provide anything more than a series of events to UW-Madison students.
To receive funding eligibility, student organizations must provide evidence that their organization provides an educational benefit and “significant components beyond event programming and leadership development opportunities.”
These benefits must be accessible to all UW-Madison students and must provide a service unavailable elsewhere on campus.
SSFC reviewed tangible and educational benefits RCF-UW would provide the student body that other religious organizations and classes already do not. Committee members debated what educational service is provided in “spirituality, prayer and worship,” the significant component RCF-UW claimed to provide students.
SSFC held an eligibility hearing with the religious organization on Feb. 21 at which RCF-UW presented the committee with information on services and programs their organization provides UW-Madison students.
At that time, group representatives said it provides access to mini-courses, religious retreats and alternative break and volunteer opportunities, in addition to opportunities to learn through and about prayer, worship and proselytizing. SSFC decided Monday these programs were not enough to qualify the group for funding.
“I think the committee gave it a lot of thought,” SSFC Chair Alex Gallagher said. “They did a very thorough examination and they dealt with a lot of tough issues.”
Gallagher said changes to SSFC by-laws in January allowed the committee to better interpret funding eligibility requirements. However, he said the committee’s new guidelines were not enough to change the decision on funding RCF-UW.
“The result that we saw tonight was very similar to the result we would have seen at the beginning of the year,” he said.
RCF-UW will be allowed to appeal the decision if they believe any procedural errors or neutrality violations were made, according to Gallagher.
The religious group is currently in the middle of a federal lawsuit with the university over funding discrepancies in its 2005-’07 budget. The parties are expected to go to trial in June.
