Two UW-Madison Student Wage Committee members are challenging Chancellor John Wiley's refusal to honor the Associated Students of Madison 2006 ballot referendum concerning student employees affected by the living wage initiative.
Ashok Kumar and Nick Limbeck, ASM representatives on the Student Wage Committee, sent an open letter via e-mail to Wiley Monday, demanding the chancellor either ""comply with the legally binding authority of the ASM ballot initiative"" or ""allow a democratic election structure, administered by ASM, for student employees at the university to choose student employees who will represent them in bargaining for better wages and benefits.""
""The last election, the Union referendum passed and [the chancellor] chose to implement the Union referendum, which is much, much more expensive than ours,"" Kumar told the Daily Cardinal. ""And ours actually passed with more of a majority.""
Wiley sent a letter Nov. 29, 2006, to members of ASM that addressed his thoughts on the issue.
""The chancellor sent that letter saying, ‘We will not support this ... that we're going to pick and choose where democracy stands and where it doesn't stand,'"" Kumar said. ""There is no case law to back that up.""
Vice Chancellor Darrell Bazzell, who Wiley designated to make final decisions within the wage committee, said students do not have the right to make such demands.
According to Bazzell, student segregated fees are paid in two categories: the allocable fees for student organizations and the non-allocable fees for the Wisconsin Union, Recreational Sports and University Health Services. ASM only has the power to control the allocable fees. ASM does not have direct control of issues concerning student employees because funding comes out of the non-allocable category.
As a result, Bazzell said the advisory referendum passed by students in the fall 2006 ASM election will strictly be used to advise the chancellor.
""What the chancellor said is that students can pass a referendum and he'll consider it, but they don't have a legal right to set wages in non-allocable units because they don't control the budgets,"" he said. ""What you see in that document doesn't accurately describe the legal rights of students—it overstates it.""
Bazzell said the chancellor plans to stay within a UW System Board of Regents policy that bases student wages on market rates.
""The policy says we should pay students a salary comparable to what the market is—for example, ‘What are others paying students to do similar work?'"" Bazzell said. ""We're going to abide by Regent policy.""
