There have been two landmark decisions made by SSFC this past week, and because of these seg fees have been cut by almost a half million dollars. The two groups that were denied eligibility, MECHA and DES, are screaming discrimination and calling some members of SSFC racist at best. I am writing this letter to assure the students of UW-Madison these allegations are definitely false and to hopefully clarify why those decisions were made.
All decisions by SSFC are required to be made from a viewpoint-neutral stance. This means that whether we personally like or dislike a group cannot factor into our decision. Each member makes his/her decision based on 10 criteria that we have for each group. Both MECHA and DES failed to meet all criteria, and were therefore denied eligibility. MECHA was not denied funding because their newsletter had a poem entitled, \Fuck the White Boy."" It doesn't matter what I think about their newsletter; what matters is that the group welcomes all students.
MECHA was denied eligibility for a few reasons, a main reason being that they duplicate services provided elsewhere by the university. MECHA used seg-fee money to set up an area where Chicano/a students could study because they claimed College Library can be ""an ethnically unsafe environment."" I do not see how taking a diverse group of students out of College Library is going to help diversify the environment there. Also, there is evidence that MECHA recruited prospective students on trips to Texas, paid for by seg -fee dollars'a direct violation of ASM by-laws.
DES received $435,000 from students last year. Of this money, nothing was spent on advertising to tell students that they are here to serve them. Groups receiving seg fees have to spend a majority of their time serving the students on campus in one way or another. How many students had even heard of DES before they were denied eligibility this week? DES also overlapped its services with university funding and the Multicultural Student Coalition. Students should not be paying two to three different groups to do the same thing. Diversity is a HUGE problem on this campus. No one can argue that point. However, this is not an issue that should be paid for with seg-fee money nor, should students be paying for a duplication of services that can be provided by MCSC and the university.
I think the lowest point of the whole situation is when I walk out of our meeting and get called a racist or I get a death stare from supporters of these groups. Some groups try to stiff-arm their way through the process and if they are denied, they claim discrimination. It is disappointing that they are so blinded by their hate. This is not a racial matter; it just so happens that the first two groups who were denied eligibility were diversity groups. I wish that we could have many more valuable student groups on campus, but unfortunately MECHA and DES didn't meet the criteria to deem them eligible.
I think I can speak for all of SSFC when I say that no one in their right mind wants to cut valuable student groups. Student groups are one of the most important parts of our campus climate. However, both MECHA and DES failed to meet standards set forth to them, and that is why they were denied funding, not because members of SSFC are racist. Hopefully this is the beginning of a change in SSFC from throwing money away to that of requiring the utmost accountability with student's' money. Thank you.
