The UW Roman Catholic Foundation may be able to keep all 14 of its full-time positions after all, as the Associated Students of Madison Student Judiciary ruled late Monday night to reverse the Student Services Finance Committee's original decision to deny the group contract status.
""Our specific mission is to meet the spiritual and educational needs of the students at the University of Wisconsin,"" said UWRCF Director Tim Kruse. ""To meet those needs, we need full-time people with advanced degrees in theology and pastoral care—students have not yet had the opportunity to receive that kind of training and to go through internships at hospitals.""
Only a contract group is able to pay full-time professional staff out of student fees, according to the Student Judiciary opinion.
The decision sets a precedent for future cases, as contract status is an SSFC-funded organization status that has not been clearly defined in the ASM Constitution and Bylaws.
The Judiciary also ruled SSFC must devise more specific, clear funding forms to use in re-hearing the UWRCF's contract status and future contract status eligibility decisions.
Kruse said the forms are incredibly important because they will provide SSFC members with specific, written criteria they must consider in order to grant a group contract status.
""However we remain very concerned about certain members of the SSFC that have maintained prejudices against us,"" Kruse said, namely ASM Finance Committee Chair Sree Atluru and SSFC members Nels Paulsen and Andreall Moore. ""But we're optimistic with several members of the committee that they will give us a fair shake.""
""We're optimistic but watchful,"" he added.
Student Judiciary also ruled contract status is indeed a funding decision, and subject to the same due process and viewpoint neutrality specifications involved in other funding decisions for student organizations.
Originally, UWRCF had alleged viewpoint neutrality violations against several SSFC members and due process violation against SSFC as a whole. However, at its hearing last week, the Foundation withdrew its viewpoint neutrality violation complaints, which stated that certain SSFC members denied the group contract status due to its religious nature and personal prejudices.
The UWRCF filed a lawsuit in federal court against the UW System Board of Regents and multiple UW-Madison departments and administrators last month.
