At the Student Association Senate meeting on Sunday night, the SA approved all of the grants for student organizations except for one, which was pulled from the SAC grant package and denied at the urging of President Travis Romero-Boeck.
The grant was a Major Event Grant for the College Republicans to bring Steve Forbes to campus next semester. It was for $23,852.90.
During the SAC deliberations weeks ago the grant was approved with the stipulation that the University Student Court provide an interpretation on the College Republicans eligibility, pursuant to a SAC bylaw.
The bylaw states that student orgs cannot be granted two Major Event Grants during the same school year. Concerns were raised that the College Republicans would be in violation of this bylaw because they held a large event in both the Fall and Spring semesters of this academic year and requested a grant for next fall as well. Chief Justice Meggan Dewitt interpreted that bylaw, specifically the word “granted,” to mean the moment when the money is distributed, not when the grant is approved.
However, according to SA President-elect Alex Kostal, Chief Justice Dewitt overstepped her bounds in making such an interpretation, which he claimed holds no legal clout.
Kostal brought a motion to the floor to remove the Chief Justice from her office, which the Senate then declined. Senator Omer Farooque made a motion to refer Dewitt to the Senate Oversight and Rules Committee (SORC), reminding the Senate that mechanisms exists for investigating and removing an appointed officer and to override them would set bad precedent.
The Senate approved the motion to refer Dewitt to SORC.
During the course of the meeting, the Senate passed a budget adjustment moving $500 from the SAC Chair’s line item salary over to the Vice Chair. Attached to the legislation were three “defining clauses.” The clauses clarified the term “granted” to mean when the president signs and approves a grant, not when the money is distributed. This is in direct contradiction to the interpretation provided by the Chief Justice.
Kostal also brought forward several pieces of legislation which he called the “Kostal Campus Stimulus Package,” the foremost of which was a bill titled The April 25th Student Organization Transparency Act.
April 25 is the day Karl Rove spoke on campus. The act is a direct response to the controversy regarding ticket distribution at the Rove event.
The bill as originally written would have forbidden student orgs from distributing tickets for free on-campus events beforehand. After some discussion, an amended compromise was reached. As passed, the bill would force student orgs to distribute tickets for free on campus events exclusively at the Union Bookstore.
Near the end of the three hour meeting, SAC Vice Chair Andrew Hastert motioned to fund the College Republicans’ Steve Forbes event at the approved regular Event Grant level, which the Senate approved. Hastert later explained that this is what SAC did with all of the other Major Event Grants that were not funded at the higher level. He estimated the approved grant to be around $8,000.
The Senate also declared that they do not support the OrgSync system, commended Union Director Scott Gore for his service, supported the Student Reps constitution of United Council, opposed plans to build a housing development in the empty lot next to the RiverView Hall and struck from their own bylaws a stipulation regarding the two minute wait period before unanimous consent can be declared.
The SA Senate will conclude the year’s business at a meeting on Monday, May 9 at 7 p.m., directly following their Passing of the Gavel dinner.
Who would have thought the usual suspects (Kostal, Banks, McCall, Johnson) would work this hard to squash a minority voice on campus. Reminds us history buffs of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Then again, no surprise, these are the dictators Kostal worships. Not to worry; in the real world, small-minded people like these will never get anywhere.
While I admit that just under $24K is steep for an event which lasts perhaps a few hours, merchandise sales from regional visitors to the event would boost revenue more than making the UWM Bookstore the sole outlet for student organizations’ distribution of “free tickets.
Sales of autographed “Forbes” magazines > Sales of slow-moving UWM Bookstore merchandise
Maybe if student orgs actually followed the rules and if sac wouldn’t have elected such a poor sac chair, one that would actually follow view point neutrality and the bylaws this wouldn’t have happened. Grow up. College Republicans can have funding other ways, they don’t need to bleed the students try every year.
wowwwwwwwwwwww! the president-elect of the sa tried to get rid of the chief justice because he disagreed with her??? (who would have thought that Kostal is as dumb as he is ugly?) looks like what the student body needs most is a mulligan on that last election. who gives a shit what political persuasion the speaker is? let’s try a “radical” idea called “equality” and give the money 50/50 to each side and let the students decide what is right/wrong rather than having the dictators in the sa dictate what people can/should be hearing.
seriously, though. does anyone else find it troubling that the guy we elected president is not even president yet and is already attacking another branch with a check over him? talk about a dictator. mao and stalin are blushing down here in hell right now…
Looks like things don’t change at UWM SA. Corruption, stealing, and cheating are just inherent to the people involved. This is what happens when you give children power for the first and last time of their lives.
UWM Alumni Association just lost my $3,000 annual donation.
@Downer Resident and Nameless Onlooker:
We need more reasonable people like you two to speak up more. I think it’s time for the campus pariahs to team up and stick up for ourselves.
Don’t think for a second that with Kostal going this far now before he’s even SA president, that he won’t try to completely demolish College Republicans when he takes control in fall. Also, notice how SA will be a one party government this fall (all ASAP). Go figure. Dime a dozen conformists.
Now it may be CRs, but next they’ll come after the groups that are easy targets next that allow conservatives to be part of them and *gasp* actually get to know us as other fellow students who share common interests, not a enemy to be purged from existence.
Just you wait, they’ll try to get rid of the 8th Note like Student Government Association tried to get rid of and moved the gameroom at UW-Waukesha into a storage room in the basement to put in a “diversity center” on the commons there (no one uses that diversity center by the way).
Student government types hate us gamers as much if not more than conservatives because we’re less Politically correct than they are, and mostly don’t care what other people think of us. Just you wait, we’re next, as we’re an even easier scapegoat that administration will allow to be purged as they blame us for people having bad grades… yeah…
How can anyone logically spend close to 24 thousand dollars for an event that will get maybe 200 people to attend. Thats just poor money management. Personally I am glad that they denied the request.
Also, why is everyone hating on these gentlemen so much. Over half the votes were for them, so obviously a large majority of the people thought they were capable of holding these positions. Just because you may not have agreed with them doesn’t mean they are dictators. Have some respect for yourselves people. How can you even comprehend comparing them to such murderers.
If you other haters feel so strongly against ASAP and Alex and Brent then why didn’t you run yourselves?
So let’s get this straight: Alex Kostal and Brent Johnson weren’t happy just denying the College Republicans their Major Event Grant, they had to try to fire the Chief Justice for disagreeing with them, then when they couldn’t fire her they tried to cut her payroll budget so they wouldn’t have to pay her? Wow, that’s shady and incredibly unethical.
When I voted for Alex and Brent, I didn’t think they were capable of stuff like this. Maybe what SDS told me about Brent Johnson sending nude photos of himself to Student Association members using his uwm.edu email account was true. An open records request from Daniel Laughland would answer that question, unless of course Brent deleted these emails, which would be a direct violation of Open Records law in Wisconsin.
Why aren’t the school’s administrators involved yet? Oh, that’s right, they’re scared of SA because of bullies like Anthony Dewees. Maybe some national media attention will change that.
Stuebs, learn how to file a public records request.
Some of the comments Kyle made seem to be operating under the assumption that the CRs were not given a grant at all. This is mistaken. The College Repubs got an operation grant as well as funding for the Steve Forbes event, albeit not as much.
This is less an attack on conservatism and more of an attack made by those who didn’t win the SA elections. Chill out.
Because it’s getting ridiculous I feel the need to respond.
@Nameless Onlooker
No surprise that it’d be the usual suspects who are upholding the rule of law. This has nothing to do with the group being conservative. There was almost a liberal group in the exact same situation and the same thing would have happened. Comparing us to mass murderers is uncalled for.
@SA Observer
The decision to use the bookstore had nothing to do with boosting bookstore sales but ensuring fair distribution of tickets. Nothing prevents them from doing autographs sales or even applying and potentially receiving the grant in the fall.
@Student Observer
I agree for the most part though I’ll say that Kate was well qualified to be SAC Chair and for the most part has performed well. At some point however I must question her viewpoint-neutrality as well.
@Satan666
Alex moved to fire the Chief Justice due to alleged SA Constitution and Bylaw violations though it is easy to see how that conclusion could be reached. No one cares about what ideology the speaker is. The disagreement was regarding how to interpret a bylaw. Obviously Kate disagreed with us. That radical idea is called viewpoint neutrality. We can’t simply divide 50/50. It’s not our fault that there aren’t as many conservative orgs as there once was but I assure you that they would get equal consideration for funding if they applied and were eligible. Btw the students elect a senate to do just what you want, allocate funding in a viewpoint neutral matter, which is what we did.
@UWMalum
Other than the obvious, The UWM Alumni Association is in no way affiliated with the UWM Student Association.
@Don Stevenson
ASAP is made up of varying minds and political ideologies who make decisions based on what they think is best for the students. This is evidenced by the fact the removal of the Chief Justice failed miserably. I myself voted against it. We don’t care about what conservatives are doing as long as rules are followed. We have no intention of using our positions to advocate our personal ideologies. ASAP, specifically Alex has defended the 8th Note when the “conservatives” have tried to get rid of it. And as far the gamer thing, as irrelevant as it is, you clearly know nothing of us. Did you miss the video games that had in the Union Concourse as a campaign event THREE TIMES? We don’t hate games (or anyone else) we are gamers.
Please keep ignorance to yourself. Everything is public record. Look it up.
@common Poet
No, an open records request would not answer that question. Any such pictures, unless attached to a committee agenda, is not related to the business of the Student Association and is thus not public record.
Captain! I’m detecting large quantities of butthurt coming from this sector.
@ Rick Banks: LOVE when student politicians drop the “i-word” (ignorant) at fellow students who have a problem with their performance. you obviously have a long career ahead of you in politics because you really know how to respond to your constituents (the key, which you obviously get: students are dumb, so be as condescending as possible).
as far as viewpoint neutrality, let’s see how “ignorant” you look when you lose the lawsuit that *i’ll bet* is being be filed against you and your comrades right now. maybe you’ll get lucky and just get a letter from their lawyers. either way the chancellor and university will drop you like a hot potato and reverse your ill-advised decision (that or the regents). they don’t want to get sued because their student government is run by numskulls who started going after a minority group on campus. selecting just one organization and reducing their allocation when you have no bylaws to back up your decision IS a violation of viewpoint neutrality. crafting legislation such as this “April 25th Act” or whatever its called is hardly viewpoint neutral – it’s in the title! you named your legislation after the day the crs held their event. aren’t you required, by order of the US Supreme Court, to have training in viewpoint neutrality (the southworth ruling! ever heard of it???). you obviously haven’t received such training or you don’t understand it, so i have no idea why you or your pals are even allowed to touch these decisions.
p.s. also *LOVE* how much time this is taking from you and your comrades. at least you won’t be able to do further harm when wasting your time talking to us peons here on the Post website.
Wait, so the incoming President and Vice President of the Student Association introduced legislation targeting one minority student organization in attempts to render their events logistically impossible, fired the president of that student organization, introduced legislation that forced said student organization into by-law non-compliance, attempted to fire a member of the judicial branch for following the request of the senate appropriations committee to interpret the organization’s compliance of said by-law, then attempted to cut the paycheck for said dissenting judicial branch member, and finally de-funded the major event grant for said student organization?
I never thought I’d say this, but the already super-shady Student Association has hit a new low.
Haha. This is great. People called me corrupt. I never defunded student orgs I didn’t agree with. Wow. I’m impressed!
0bama’s fan base is truly the bottom half of this generation. Unable to think for themselves, having no actual argument, no facts, they resort to back room deals, violence, and intimidation…hmmmmm..just like the way we lost our healthcare system, who would have thought…a disgusting display of cowardly arrogance we’ve seen since the great failure was elected, it won’t happen again in 2012 and these creatures infecting our educational institutions will be squashed like the cockroaches they are.
@Brent
The bigger picture here is not who acquired and didn’t acquire grant money…no..the much much bigger picture here is the cowardly way they got rid of people with opposing views, a true characteristic of union values there, today UWM is another left wing stain thrust into the public spotlight helping cement victory for the GOP this next election.
College Republicans: “Helping those who already have the means to help themselves!”