In its latest battle with the university, the UW Roman Catholic Foundation filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday against the entire UW System Board of Regents and four UW-Madison administrators, citing discriminatory policies in effect at all levels of the university.
""The University of Wisconsin, once a bastion for free debate and thought, now selectively excludes religious students and their student organizations from meeting on campus and from receiving student activity fee funding for their expressive activities,"" the filed complaint reads.
Specifically, the complaint alleges religious discrimination on the part of the UW System, UW-Madison student government and Student Organization Office policies.
According to SOO policy, Registered Student Organizations cannot require student leaders to be of a certain faith, gender, race, origin, age or marital status.
""The university has just continued to direct students to keep discriminating against us,"" said UWRCF member and UW-Madison senior Beth Czarnecki, referring to Chancellor John Wiley's suggestions to Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee in Spring 2006 to reevaluate the UWRCF's funding eligibility and ""to take into account the religious nature of the group.""
Student organizations that are not RSOs cannot receive funding from SSFC.
""We need to take this outside of the university,"" Czarnecki said.
The complaint alleges the university ""singled out"" UWRCF, specifically excluding the organization from any funding because of its religious nature.
However, according to the Directory of Registered Student Organizations maintained on the SOO's website, 33 student organizations categorized as ""Religious"" have been approved for RSO status for this academic year, all of which are then eligible to apply for SSFC funding. And according to university spokesperson John Lucas, many more religious student organizations are still awaiting RSO status, as well.
Wiley, SOO Director Yvonne Fangmeyer, Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam and Associate Dean of Students Elton Crim are the four UW-Madison administrators named as defendants in the complaint.
Both Lucas and Fangmeyer said the individual administrators being sued are centralizing all statements through University Communications and will not be available to speak on an individual basis now that litigation has been initiated.
""Under the advice of our lawyers, we just give a general statement and that's about all we can offer,"" Lucas said, noting UW-Madison administration thinks it has a good case.
UWRCF filed suit through Alliance Defense Fund, which is responsible for other recent actions against the university, including the lawsuit filed against UW-Superior for its denial of student organization status to its InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter.
UWRCF also filed a lawsuit against SSFC Sunday night because SSFC refused to hear UWRCF's request for ""contract status""—a status to receive monthly payments rather than have SSFC handle its finances, but according to SSFC Chair Zach Frey, the request will be heard at tonight's meeting, 6:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union.
