The Tenant Resource Center, a Madison-based center devoted to helping local renters with landlord and other living issues like tenants' rights, declared Monday it is suing the Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee because it was denied funding eligibility due to not being a Registered Student Organization.
The dispute is over the Tenant Resource Center's student organization called Students for Tenant Resource Center. Ten years ago, the TRC ""had to create the organization ‘Students for Tenant Resource Center' to be able to continue getting funding from SSFC,"" said STRC representative and UW-Madison junior Alex George.
The STRC ""is a student organization, but it's run under the Tenant Resource Center,"" George said, emphasizing the student organization's efforts like dorm presentations and tabling for prospective student home renters.
According to George, the STRC applications have simply been putting ""Tenant Resource Center"" on applications, omitting ""Students For.""
SSFC argued that because the words ""Students For"" are not part of the organization's title, the entity applying for eligibility is the TRC, and not its student branch, according to SSFC chair and UW-Madison senior Zach Frey.
""I think that if you look at the organizations and the way that it's done, it's very clear that Student for Tenant Resource Center and the Tenant Resource Center itself are two different organizations,"" said Frey. The TRC is ""not a Registered Student Organization,"" he stressed, and therefore will not receive any funding.
Without funding, George said the TRC's ""beneficial"" services to students will be cut.
""Probably every kid is going to be a renter at some point in their college life,"" George said.
A hearing on the lawsuit is tentatively scheduled next week for Oct. 31 or Nov. 1.
