By Robert Salonga
Daily Bruin Reporter
U.S. District Court Judge John C. Shabaz declared on March 15
that the University of Wisconsin’s student fee policy is
still unconstitutional, despite recent changes the university made
in the way fee revenue is distributed.
The Wisconsin court case has influenced UCLA’s
Undergraduate Students Association Council, which has been revising
its own bylaws regarding student fee allocations since the
beginning of this academic year.
This quarter, the council will take a half-hour recess during
each of its weekly meetings to discuss these revisions.
The discussions will be facilitated by Internal Vice President
Elias Enciso, who also chairs the Constitutional Review Committee.
Normally, it is the president who moderates such discussions, but
Enciso said he will be the facilitator because he chairs the
CRC.
“We’re reviewing our bylaws to make sure groups are
funded on a viewpoint-neutral basis,” Enciso said.
USAC President Elizabeth Houston could not be reached for
comment.
Likewise, the University of California has been reassessing its
student fee distribution policies, but said it has nothing to do
with the Wisconsin decision.
“We have been reevaluating this policy for several
months,” said Mary Spletter, spokeswoman for the UC Office of
the President.
“We’re trying to make it reflect the student body
and legalities,” she continued.
Spletter added that because no decision has been made, it would
be premature to determine its effect on UC campuses.
The Wisconsin case began in 1996 when Wisconsin student Scott
Southworth and others contended the university’s fee policy
violated their free speech rights by compelling them to contribute
to groups with whom they disagreed.
Last year, Shabaz ruled that the student government in Wisconsin
had too much discretion in deciding how much money various groups
received and ordered the school to develop a new allocation
method.
Last month, the university’s associated students proposed
a new appeals process for groups complaining that their funding was
adversely affected, but Shabaz was not satisfied.
“The appeals process protects the rights of registered
student organizations, but not the rights of individual students
who raise objections,” Shabaz said in a statement on March
15.
In his recent decision, Shabaz said the fee allocation conflict
is prolonged by the Wisconsin student government’s drive to
be the distributor of these funds, and claimed their political
motives could lead to abuse.
“The complications in this case relate to the
defendant’s pursuit not only of its commitment to fund
diverse student speech, but its competing commitment to empower
student government to be the arbiter of that funding,” Shabaz
stated.
On the other hand, Enciso said it is the role of a student
government to determine where student fees should go.
“USAC is a political entity, one that is supposed to
represent and endorse groups that USAC feels are vital to the
community and educational climate at UCLA,” he said.
USAC, which has been holding ad hoc meetings since October to
discuss revising its bylaws, was warned by Administrative
Representative Lyle Timmerman that if its bylaws weren’t
revised by Feb. 27, he would freeze student funds.
But upon the request of the council, Chancellor Albert Carnesale
extended the deadline for revision to April 13.