The Associated Students of Madison's Student Judiciary found the Student Services Finance Committee in violation of viewpoint neutrality Monday night.
The decision was an appeal in the case of the Langdon-State Neighborhood Association v. Lamont Smith (on behalf of the SSFC).
A new hearing for the group will be conducted by the ASM Student Council by the end of the semester.
The organization was originally denied funding by SSFC in September on the assumption that the group serves only a specific group of students, with the group filing a complaint claiming discrimination, in early October.
The original decision by the Student Judiciary was 9-0-2 in favor of SSFC's decision.
An automatic appeal followed.
Whether the process the UW System uses to fund student organizations is viewpoint neutral is now the subject of a federal court case brought against the system by former UW-Madison law student Scott Southworth.
Vance Gathing, a former SSFC member, UW-Madison alumnus and representative of the Langdon-State Neighborhood Association, said about six SSFC-funded groups serve a specific group of people, making the denied funding an \illegal consideration.""
""This is U.S. Supreme Court-level discussion here,"" he said. ""By [SSFC's] own flawed procedure we should get funding.""
SSFC member Matt Modell defended SSFC's decision claiming the group is exclusionary, not offering all services to all students.
""We've had zero evidence that we've been discriminatory,"" Modell said.
SSFC Chair Lamont Smith said he agreed.
""It was pretty cut and dry,"" he said. ""It's outlined in the student organization handbook that your organization can't be discriminatory.""
Modell added the Langdon-State Neighborhood Association's services and procedures were not completely clear to SSFC members during the group's hearing.
