The Student Judiciary ruled all Associated Students of Madison Finance Committee decisions made in fall 2012 void Monday following a student group’s complaint over a recent funding decision.
The Finance Committee, which delegates funding to registered student organizations for operations funding, events and group travel, denied the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild its full travel grant request on Sept. 11.
The group then filed a complaint to the SJ Sept. 20, requesting review of the committee’s decision to not fund travel expenses for an additional group member to attend a conference.
In a unanimous decision written by SJ Chief Justice Nick Checker, the judiciary ruled in favor of NLG, saying Finance Committee failed to make its decisions in a viewpoint neutral manner, or with an objective approach that does not take any group’s philosophy into consideration, as is required by law in all funding decisions.
Under viewpoint neutrality policy, all committee members are required to explain on the record where the group did or did not meet funding criteria before formally voting, a process the Finance Committee failed to follow in all previous decisions this year.
According to the SJ ruling, Finance Committee will rehear all grants which were voted on this fall and require all members to state their vote on the record in the second round of hearings.
“That such systemic procedural deficiencies have persisted through the entire funding cycle thus far is an egregious oversight on the part of the Finance Committee that, frankly, boggles the mind,” Checker wrote in the decision.
According to ASM Press Office Director David Gardner, it is unlikely that previously approved grants will be denied funding in a second hearing.
“There’s potential that some of those people who voted yes or no, if they were to have voted that way because they were not being viewpoint neutral, will likely vote to abstain,” Gardner said.
Gardner also said groups who are reapproved in a second Finance Committee hearing but have already paid money “out of pocket” to fund their grant will be retroactively reimbursed for the amount.
