This year, $830,000 of unused student segregated fees may go back to students, pending a decision by members of the Student Services Finance Committee Thursday.
Each year, more than $650 of each UW-Madison student's tuition goes toward segregated fees, which are designated for the operation of various student services and organizations.
The excess funds come from unspent organizational money as well as any money accumulated from overestimated enrollment rates.
Organizations must apply to receive left over segregated fees. This year the Segregated University Fee Allocation Committee received only two applications for additional emergency reserve fees, leaving excess money.
'In order to receive more money, they have to meet three criteria, it has to be a critical situation, it has to further the general student interests and it has to be clear that this is a one time use,' said UW-Madison senior Eric Varney, a member of SUFAC.
Varney said both of the applications were from the Legal Information Center. The one application SUFAC is not considering is a request for funding for two of LIC's employees.
'We determined that that wasn't a critical use of the money,' he said.
The other application from the LIC was a request for $1,300 to move locations. Whether the LIC will receive the money will be determined Thursday.
If SUFAC does decide to officially grant the LIC $1,300, they will still have $828,700 from tuition fees left over.
Varney said the money that is not used will likely be redistributed to the students, not by cutting each student a check, but by lowering tuition fees for next semester.
'There's a very good chance that a significant portion or all of the money will be redistributed to the students,' Varney said.
However, if the money is returned to the students, the seniors graduating this year will not receive any of the leftover segregated fees.
'I know the inner-workings of the reserve fees. It's not just that the students were overcharged, it's that the money was not fully used,' said UW-Madison senior and former SUFAC member Janell Wise.
Wise said she thinks the process would be more efficient if student organizations had a better idea of how much money they needed, but that determining student organization budgets is often difficult.
According to Wise, every student will have lowered tuition costs from the reserve fee at least once or twice while they are at UW-Madison.
'I think the reserve board and ASM are doing the best they can, and I think that the process is fair,' Wise said.
