An executive branch official who oversees student programs ruled in response to an official complaint Friday that the $50 book scholarships the ASUO Women’s Center gives to students in financial binds do not violate incidental fee rules. A student senator filed the complaint against the Women’s Center last week.
The ruling followed a debate in the Student Senate early this term about whether campus groups can use student fees to aid individuals.
Student Senator Dallas Brown filed the grievance because fund allocation policies do not allow student money to be donated to charitable causes.
“I believe it is fair and in accordance with (student governance rules) that the Women’s Center immediately and permanently cease the scholarships,” Brown wrote in his complaint, because the rules state that “at no time may incidental fee monies be donated to a charitable cause.”
ASUO Programs Administrator David Goward ruled in favor of the Women’s Center because the scholarships don’t take student money off campus and all students can apply for the aid, he said.
Brown is now appealing Goward’s decision.
The incidental fee, which costs each student $191 a term, is supposed to be used to benefit all fee-paying students and fund events, guest speakers and other campus events open to all students, according to the rules for student government.
Student Senators discovered on April 5 that the Women’s Center, a student group that received almost $150,000 in fees this year, has been giving book scholarships to individual students for the last several years. They were unsure whether the book aid violated fee rules.
The Women’s Center received $300 in fees for the book aid this year, and the ASUO Executive gave an extra $200 from its fundraising account this term. The ASUO committee that sets budgets for student groups allocated money for these scholarships to next year’s budget as well.
After consulting Brown and the Women’s Center director, Goward ruled against the complaint because he said the rules describing “charitable causes” and “gifts” do not apply to the Women’s Center scholarships.
Women’s Center spokeswoman Stefanie Loh said the group gave 12 students scholarships this term.
Because of the appeal, the dispute will now be handed to the ASUO president, the Student Senate president and the ASUO multicultural advocate. This committee has one month to investigate and rule on the matter. ASUO President Adam Walsh has the power to freeze the book scholarship fund if, during the investigation, he finds the allocations violate governance rules.

Contact the campus and federal politics reporter at [email protected]