After talking to several students about seg-fee reform--in particular the \opt-out"" proposal--I think a misunderstanding as to what will happen and alternatives exists in regard to seg-fee reform.
If you hear Associated Students of Madison Chair Bryan Gadow talk about seg-fees, he describes the current system as ""supporting a marketplace of ideas."" As the system goes now, it supports all groups that meet certain criteria. This allows for a public debate for both sides receiving adequate funding to push their message, educating all students as to the spectrum of arguments. In an opt-out system, there is no marketplace of ideas.
In an opt-out system, students pay only for groups they receive direct benefits from, neglecting indirect positive consequences from funding other groups. For example: Multicultural groups offer direct support for minorities (a very small portion of our campus), increasing retention and recruitment. A current problem at this university, as iterated by Chancellor Wiley, is the loss of interest by multinational corporations looking to hire culturally savvy graduates. Through supporting multicultural groups and attracting students from different backgrounds, UW-Madison's reputation is bolstered, resulting in a UW diploma being more valuable and increasing job opportunities for students from this university.
Another argument against the opt-out system is that it creates a biased climate on campus. In an opt-out system, funding levels for student groups across the board will drop. The strongest groups in an opt-out system are those that receive funding from outside sources. What happens is whichever viewpoints can raise the most outside money (from sources with specific agendas) are going to be the ones heard by our campus. This will create students knowledgeable only about specific points of view and hinder the mission of the university: to educate.
While I do understand the benefits of an opt-out system, I believe there is a better way to achieve these benefits without neglecting the ""marketplace for ideas."" Instead of opting out, council should institute accounting standards and practice random, yearly audits to check student activity spending and practices. This simple alteration to the current system will force groups to show where they spend student monies, exactly what direct and indirect consequences their activities have on this campus and support all eligible groups giving everyone the marketplace to chose the activities that they want to participate in.
