Liberal Students Have Unfair Funding Advantage Over Conservatives at UW Madison
“liberal-leaning organizations receive 95 percent”
If conservative students are forced to pay student fees, they should enjoy the benefits which come with them.
Campus Reform reports:
Liberals have 20:1 edge in student fee funding at UW-Madison
The University of Wisconsin, Madison raked in close to $50 million in mandatory student fees in back-to-back fiscal years, according to an in-depth Campus Reform analysis.
Students shelled out $48,304,995.37 in mandatory fees in fiscal year 2017, and are set to pay $50,009,977.94 in fiscal year 2018, a 3.53 percent increase.
Of the roughly $1.5 million that is allocated toward student organizations with a discernible political leaning, Campus Reform found that liberal-leaning organizations receive 95 percent, compared to just 4.5 percent for conservative groups.
This means that each student pays an estimated $7.60 towards liberal causes each fiscal year, and just $0.36 towards conservative groups, with another $3.08 going to diversity-themed organizations.
In the University of Wisconsin system, student fees are known as segregated university fees (SUF), and fall into two categories: non-allocable and allocable, with the former constituting 83 percent of SUF and “support commitments for fixed financial obligations,” and the latter providing “substantial support for campus student activities.”
In 2017, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker proposed making allocable fees—which total $8,231,986.37—optional, though the proposal was ultimately nixed from his budget.
But student Jake Lubenow, chairman of both the Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans and the College Republicans chapter at UW Madison, told Campus Reform that the College Republicans organization “stands firm in its stance that allocable student fees should be made optional.”
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