Members of the ASUO are putting the final touches on three ballot measures that will go before students in a special election to be held Nov. 12-14.
Ordinarily, the ASUO holds elections only in the spring, when students vote for student senators and executive officers.
But ASUO leaders have organized a fall election this year to propose changes to the Clark Document, the part of the ASUO Constitution which governs the use of student fees.
In an informational session about the special elections Oct. 1, ASUO President Nilda Brooklyn said student government leaders have been told by University General Counsel Melinda Grier and University President Dave Frohnmayer that the Clark Document must be changed to avoid legal implications for the University.
During the meeting, attended by both administrators and University program coordinators, Brooklyn said she understood their concerns about the changes proposed on the special election ballot, but it was an administrative decision to put them on the ballot.
“I understand the frustration and the questions,” she said. “I don’t see this as a solution. This is something I’m being charged to do.”
In past years, students have voted on whether to use incidental fees to fund campus organizations such as OSPIRG.
But a Supreme Court case brought by former law student Scott Southworth against the University of Wisconsin has put the legality of this process into question.
Southworth and several other students argued that the mandatory fee system at the University of Wisconsin violated their First Amendment rights because it forced them to support groups whose ideologies they disagreed with.
The Supreme Court ruled in March of 2000 that schools could use student fees to fund programs only if funding was approved through a “viewpoint neutral” process — a process which doesn’t accept or deny a program based on its ideological views. The ruling suggested that ballot measure funding was not viewpoint neutral because it allowed funding to be decided by majority opinion.
Two other ballot measures to be voted on in the special election also propose changes to the Clark Document.
One would allow programs to shift their budgets between the Program Finance Committee, the EMU and the Athletic Department. Senator Mary Elizabeth Madden, who is a member of the work group writing the ballot measure, said the measure would establish a process for groups to obtain approval for that realignment.
Program realignment was a topic of debate last year, she said, because there is nothing in the Clark Document which addresses that issue. Some programs clearly belong in only one budget, she said.
For example, she said, the EMU building maintenance program should be in the EMU budget. But other programs, such as the Cultural Forum and the Student Activities Resource Office, fall into a gray area, she said. Some people have argued those programs should be moved to the PFC budget, which includes student unions such as the International Student Association.
The third ballot measure relates to the EMU building reserves fund, which is used to pay for EMU emergency expenses or other expenses that come up during the year.
State law mandates that the fund be kept at a certain level. But because of funding shortages, the fund has been below that level in the past.
The ballot measure proposes making up the shortfall with ASUO overrealized funds, she said. Overrealized funds include extra student fee money that accumulates when enrollment is higher than expected. If the measure passes, the ASUO Senate would approve EMU Board expenses after the board spends a certain percentage of the reserve money.
If any student has a ballot measure for the special election, it must be submitted to the Constitution Court by 5 p.m. today. The Constitution Court will decide within five days of submission whether to approve the wording of the ballot measure. Once the Constitution Court gives its approval, sponsors can begin petitioning for the measure.
Any individual or group can put a measure on the ballot by petition, ASUO elections coordinator Courtney Hight said.
Only ballot measures which would change the ASUO Constitution can be voted on in the special election. Ballot measure sponsors must collect the signatures of 10 percent of the student body to place a ballot in the special election.