UW System administrators announced Thursday the adoption of a new segregated university fee policy, which aims to continue the shared responsibility between students and campus administrators in the allocation of segregated fees and protect their use in the best interest of students.
Students and administrators must work together to protect this system of collecting and dispersing segregated university fees,"" said Don Mash, UW System executive senior vice president, speaking on behalf of UW System President Kevin Reilly at a UW System Board of Regents meeting.
""In doing so we must be wary of increasing pressure from large, self-sustaining, non-profit groups seeking to acquire additional funding for general operations not directly focused on the unique educational interests of UW students,"" Mash said.
Mash announced Reilly's acceptance of the recommended policy, which was forwarded to him in late November by a special committee of five students and five system administrators.
""That recommendation came with a lot of public meetings, a lot of broad input, comments by each of our 26 campuses - comments from both the administrative side and the student side,"" said David Giroux, a UW System spokesperson.
According to Giroux, the committee compiled the feedback and with a vote of six to three agreed to send the revised policy to Reilly at its last meeting Nov. 27.
Alex Gallagher, the Associated Students of Madison Student Services Finance Committee chair who served on the special committee, spoke at the meeting about his reasons of voting against the policy.
""The problem that I feel with this particular document is it does represent new restrictions, specifically new restrictions for Madison's campus,"" Gallagher said. ""Out of all 13 four-year colleges and 13 two-year colleges, I believe that Madison's campus is the only one that will be directly affected by this.""
The segregated fee policy also became a cause for concern for some UW-Madison student groups, including the Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group, who thought their rights to shared governance were being taken away.
""I do not support the policy changes because I feel that they will restrict civic engagement services and activities that students are currently able to create through segregated fees,"" WISPIRG Vice Chair Gabrielle Hinahara said.
""This is not a brand new issue on the Madison campus,"" Provost Patrick Farrell said at Thursday's meeting. ""The topic has been under discussion for quite some time.""
He said the new guidelines are not ones UW-Madison administrators would have chosen, but that university officials are willing to work with them.
""I think the policy as written, and apparently as accepted, will help clarify a number of the issues,"" Farrell said.
""[Students and administrators will] still likely have some discussions, perhaps a few disagreements but I think its helpful to start out much closer to each other than might have been the case in the past few years.""
Regent Jeff Bartell said he disagreed with the way the policy came about.
""It would seem to me that [the Regents] would play some role with respect to this policy and the adoption of this policy,"" he said. ""I'm really puzzled as to why it is we're not being asked to participate in this discussion - I'm distressed about it because I think this policy needs more work.""
Giroux said the policy, however, was not a Regents policy and was never meant to be voted on by the Regents because it is part of UW System's financial administration policy.
""[The policy is] one that we think will serve students well and protect the seg fee system for the long haul,"" he said.
The revision committee considered how much state oversight should govern segregated fee dollars, if segregated fees could be used to fund student groups' off-campus rent and if segregated fees could be used to pay for non-university employees.
""The policy does in fact allow for off-campus rent, does in fact allow for contracts, but it also requires that the process be a product of shared governance - a two way conversation between both the administration and the student leadership.""
Giroux said the Regents might continue a discussion at its full board meeting Friday, which WISPIRG members plan to attend, according to a Facebook event created for the Regents meeting.
""Students understand that the policy changes will have great impacts on student organizations throughout the system,"" Hinahara said, adding Reilly had received more than 1,000 phone calls from students in opposition of the policy changes.
For a copy of the policy, log on to http://www.uwsa.edu/bor/agenda/2007/december.pdf.
