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Supreme Court ruling won't affect ASUA club funding

Yesterday's Supreme Court decision involving university allocation of mandatory student fees won't affect ASUA, officials said.

The high court rejected a claim from several University of Wisconsin-Madison students that the university violated their First Amendment rights by using mandatory student fees to fund political, religious or ideological groups.

At UA, the Associated Students Appropriations Board allocates part of their budget to help fund campus organizations.

ASUA President-elect Ben Graff said the ruling won't affect the Associated Students' funding structure, because revenue from the U of A Bookstore - not University of Arizona's student fees - is used to fund campus groups.

Student-fee money handled by ASUA is used mostly for salaries and stipends, said Graff, the organization's current executive vice president.

Last summer, ASUA President Cisco Aguilar, Graff and Administrative Vice President Viviane Safrin reorganized the funding structure to ensure that no student funds were being used for club allocations, Graff said.

"This was the first year we made sure club funding only came from the bookstore," Graff said.

If the Supreme Court had decided in favor of the students, Aguilar said, ASUA would take a closer look at its funding structure.

Graff agreed and added that had the decision been reversed, ASUA would "research" its funding structure to make sure student fees were untouched by clubs.

But Graff said he supported the court's ruling.

"It was a positive decision," he said. "It's the student government's responsibility to best fit the needs of as many student governments as possible."