The Associated Students of Madison announced Wednesday that changes to the group's constitution could alter the way students control millions of dollars in segregated fees.
Four changes are up for referendum and will appear on ASM's ballot later this month.
The first proposed change has been the most contentious in recent weeks: ASM would give complete control of excess seg fees to the Student Services Finance Committee.
Currently, university administration sets aside seg fees not appropriated for use through an informal board, including members of the Office of the Dean of Students and the SSFC, according to Assistant Vice Chancellor Bill Richner.
\Unspent seg fees always remain in whatever account they were raised for and they are used to lower segregated fees for the next year,"" he said.
Still, ASM Chair Austin Evans maintains the administration simply sets aside millions of dollars of excess revenue in banks to accrue interest while students pay more in seg fees with each passing year.
""It's been taken out of students' control and decided upon by the administration,"" ASM Representative Erin Johnson said. ""It was a struggle to meet with them and ask them questions.""
A second referendum would make ASM's constitution consistent with university policy by no longer allowing students to allocate or prohibit funds for ""speech or expressive activities"" by initiative.
This practice was already declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2000 decision in Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin vs. Southworth, which determined universities must use a standard of ""viewpoint neutrality"" to decide seg fee allocation.
A third change to the constitution would reapportion members of some SSFC board, cutting four positions held by representatives from major campus organizations and adding two elected student representatives, one student council member and one at-large representative from ASM.
Finally, a proposed amendment would force Student Council members to be more active by penalizing them for not attending a certain number of conferences, retreats and other activities every semester.
""This resolution will [force Council members to] help make change on the grass-roots level instead of sitting in Council passing resolutions,"" Johnson, a co-sponsor of the resolution, said.
