Throughout the highly publicized property battle between Brothers Bar and Grill and the UW System Board of Regents, student organization MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) said it has slipped through the cracks in university priorities.
The student group's office is located above Brothers, where the university is fighting to build the new UW School of Music facility.
While the university is exercising eminent domain to seize the property, there has been no initiative to compensate the student organization, said Ismael Cuevas, MEChA president.
""They're leaving us on our own … at least give us a helping hand and help us find something on campus that meets our expectations and our goals,"" Cuevas said.
MEChA is a cultural club on campus seeking to educate the local community about Chicana/o culture and cultivate a political and artistic presence among students. The organization has resided in their current office space since 1972.
The unknown fate of their office space has made planning workshops much more difficult, according to Cuevas.
""We want our direct services to be used by every student and organization on campus.""
Cuevas also said his group is simply trying to hold onto the space for as
long as possible during the legal battle.
According to Cuevas, all of the organization's direct services are held in the office. Additionally, all historical archives of the club since its establishment in 1972 are located in the office's backroom.
Cuevas said the university has not been in contact with the organization throughout the public property debate and anything they know regarding their office location's status is through word of mouth.
Within the coming weeks, according to Cuevas, MEChA intends to meet with Dean of Students Lori Berquam to resolve issues regarding office relocation.
""With the history that we have on this campus, along with the programming that we do and the constituency that we serve, I think it's neglectful on [the university's] behalf to not contact us,"" Cuevas said.
MEChA initiated independent looks into relocating to the Student Activity Center but would be constrained by space limitations there.
The UW System has previously stated that they intend to pay Brothers' owners $2.1 million for the property and that the music school proposal was included in the state's 2007 capital budget, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
UW Systems spokesperson David Giroux could not be reached for comment.
