From the beginning, the details surrounding the UW Roman Catholic Foundation's attempts to gain Registered Student Organization status have been murky.
Culminating with a lawsuit filed last Thursday, the UWRCF now alleges religious discrimination. But why did it have to come to this?
According to the UWRCF, the group meets the membership requirements of all RSO's in that student leaders need not be of a certain faith, gender, race, origin, age or marital status. The denial of RSO funds, then, they claim is discrimination.
But Special Assistant to the Chancellor Casey Nagy says this is not the main reason they have been denied RSO status. He claims part of the reason is that, of the 12 members of UWRCF's board, only three are students, giving the impression that the group may not be open to all students.
However, the Student Services Finance Committee—which ultimately doles out the funds—only requires RSO's to have three student members on their board, a requirement the UWRCF meets The Student Organization Office, apparently, has a different requirement that they have not disclosed.
If you are confused, don't worry, so are we. It is hard to tell whether the university is discriminating or just being anal about RSO status. Although it does seem logical that the SOO would want student organizations to be largely student-run, the overall inaction and general aversion to giving straight answers makes us question their motives.
A lawsuit is a dramatic step, but, because no clear account of what has happened with the UWRCF has emerged, we feel it may finally shed some light on this issue. If the university had been more frank from the beginning, perhaps this could have been averted, but we look forward to hearing the results.
