After nearly a year-long struggle for Registered Student Organization status—the factor that makes a student organization at UW-Madison eligible for large amounts of segregated fee funding—the UW Roman Catholic Foundation was granted the status Thursday afternoon.
The Foundation rearranged its leadership board earlier this month to have students comprise the majority of it, in order to be considered eligible for RSO status from UW-Madison's Student Organization Office.
UWRCF made the change after it was told exactly how many students qualified as ""majority student leadership""—six out of 12 board members total—by a federal court at a recent hearing in a lawsuit UWRC filed against the university.
""We're pleased at the prospect of moving forward and having our religious viewpoint no longer the subject of special treatment,"" UWRCF Director Tim Kruse said Thursday. ""You know, just letting us be treated like the rest of the student orgs and letting us move forward is going to be nice.""
UWRCF also filed lawsuits against four UW-Madison administrators, including SOO Director Yvonne Fangmeyer and Chancellor John Wiley earlier this academic year, claiming that the university discriminated against the organization because of its faith-based activities and viewpoint.
A December 2006 UW System Board of Regents decision declared student organizations can now require its members to sign belief statements based on faith, political viewpoints and other ideologies.
—Erica Pelzek
