Procedural questions dominated discussion Thursday as the Associated Students of Madison Student Council denied Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan's eligibility to receive segregated-fee funding.
The motion to grant eligibility failed by a vote of 11 to 15.
MEChA was denied eligibility last month by the Student Services Finance Committee. They appealed the decision to ASM's Student Judiciary contending the committee violated viewpoint neutrality. The judiciary concurred allowing them to appear before ASM in an attempt to reverse the original decision.
To gain eligibility, MEChA needed to prove they met specific criteria as stated in ASM's bylaws. The council debate centered on whether MEChA actively recruited high school students using segregated-fee funding, which would violate university policy.
Representative Ryan Nichols used UW Board of Regents policy 15 to support his claim that the group did violate this during a trip to Texas. Representative Tom Clark agreed with him.
MEChA representatives disputed this in their presentation.
\We had no high school recruitment,"" said Gladys Reyes, a UW-Madison senior and member of MEChA.
Furthermore, she said the trip in question was paid for by individual group members, not segregated-fees.
Nichols, however, was not satisfied with this explanation.
""It's very evident they knew [they were not allowed to recruit using segregated fees] and that's why they paid for their tickets,"" he said.
Others were not convinced by the plot Nichols suggested, citing council representatives must be sure MEChA knowingly recruited high school students using segregated fees, thus violating policy, to deny eligibility.
""You can't physically prove they recruit people unless you were in San Antonio,"" ASM Representative David Presberry said. ""Unless you can prove they were recruiting people you don't have a case.""
Council representatives assessed each criteria on the basis of yes, no or not enough information. To deem the group eligible, all criteria must have been given a yes. Otherwise, representatives had to vote against the group.
Adrianna Barboza, co-chair of MEChA, was disappointed with the council's decision but said their fight is not over yet.
""I just feel like a lot of information presented was thrown out the window,"" she said. ""It's not going to be over. We believe MEChA provides a very essential component to the campus as a whole and a simple decision is not going to stop us after 32 years of struggle.""
The council did not approve shared governance or student judiciary appointments.
