A bill being considered by Republican lawmakers could require chancellors of UW System schools to approve every decision made by student governments that use segregated fees.
State Sen. Rick Gudex, R-Fond du Lac, is seeking co-authors and student input on a bill he says would “clear up” state law that should allow students on UW campuses to make decisions about where their fees go, although it has been interpreted in other ways.
“You could interpret the statutes to say ‘no the chancellor should be figuring this out and the students can tell him if they like it or not,’” Lance Burri, a staff member in Gudex’s office, said. “What we’re trying to do is just clarify that, for fees that have a direct impact on student life, students figure it out first, and students have the primary responsibility for figuring it out.”
Student government leaders across the System agree with the motive behind the bill, but the current language in the bill could produce the opposite of the intended effect, according to UW Eau Claire student senate President Samuel Fish.
The problem, says Fish, is the bill would rewrite the statute to make finance decisions “subject to” approval of System chancellors, rather than made “in consultation with” chancellors, as the current law reads.
“We are very concerned, because although the intent was to help students, it’s actually going to hurt students,” Tom Gierok, chair of the Associated Students of Madison’s Legislative Affairs Committee, said. “We just want to make sure that students have the final say.”
Gierok and Fish say they hope to work with the bill’s authors to change the language and would support the bill if changes were made.
“It definitely does need to be addressed, that line that they’re changing has been an issue for many many years,” Gierok said. “That line is definitely a problem.”
Burri said he does not believe the bill in its current form would “dilute the students’ authority,” but added his office is willing to work with students to work through their concerns about the bill.
“We’re trying to do something here for students,” Burri said. “If we get a lot of disagreement from students, we’ll make a change to the bill.”
