For the third year in a row the Student Services Finance Committee denied funds for Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow in front of a hearing room packed full of the group's supporters.
At Thursday's meeting the committee voted unanimously against awarding funds to CFACT—a conservative, free-market oriented organization that advocates against creating ""green jobs"" and aims to disprove widespread beliefs about global warming, according to the group's website.
SSFC members cited equipment violations as their main reason for denying the student group funds.
SSFC Chair Matthew Manes said the group failed to return computers, printers and a video camera purchased with student money granted by the SSFC in a previous year, and when equipment was returned some of it had been destroyed or damaged.
During open forum a representative of CFACT asked that the committee not consider this violation in their decision, as the group had returned or paid for the equipment in its entirety.
Committee members did not heed the representative's plea as CFACT failed to respond for multiple months to the committee's request to return the equipment, according to SSFC members.
""There have been other groups that have violated ASM bylaws but I think a key part is communication,"" committee member Aliyya Terry said.
CFACT is currently involved in a lawsuit against UW-Madison for one of SSFC's previous decisions to deny the group funding.
CFACT alleges they were previously denied eligibility because of their conservative beliefs, whereas the liberal group Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group was granted funding that same year, according to the group's website.
However, WISPIRG was also denied funding for next year.
SSFC members said they are committed to an unbiased decision-making process and that the ongoing lawsuit ""in now way affected our decision,"" Manes said.
Members of CFACT declined to comment.
At the same meeting, SSFC approved funding eligibility for Wisconsin Student Lobby, a group that teaches students lobbying tactics and plans to lobby for policies that it says will benefit UW-Madison students.
WSL has been an active student group for just over a year and were granted over $65,000 by the SSFC last fall.
