Friday, May 31, 1996
Unclear guidelines, timeliness cited as reason for council's decisionBy Patrick Marantal
Daily Bruin Staff
Feminist student group Womynist Collective received a severe blow Tuesday in their battle for university recognition.
In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the undergraduate council denied the campus feminist group sponsorship, which would make the organization an official student advocacy group. Six members of the undergraduate council opted to abstain.
The Womynist Collective had needed a two-thirds majority in order to be sponsored and would have met that requirement with one more "yes" vote.
For members of the student group, the council's decision was a significant blow to their year-long attempt to gain official recognition.
"Our organization has worked really hard for recognition from student government," said Petty Tsay, a co-chair of the group. "We feel betrayed because we thought that they represented the interests of students and especially groups that have been traditionally oppressed."
But undergraduate President York Chang, who had voted for sponsorship, reiterated that the vote was not against the group. Rather, he emphasized that the timeliness of the vote and the issue of ambiguous guidelines set way the council would vote on the issue.
The present guidelines require potential student groups to advocate for students, mobilize its constituency and organize at a grassroots level, he explained.
"I was surprised," Chang said. "But after talking with council members, I think it is more a matter of the timing of the vote rather than a vote against the Womynist Collective.
"Hopefully, next year's council will be able to develop clear guidelines for sponsorship and there won't be this confusion," he added.
But Tsay disagreed with the purported guidelines problems, stating that the collective fits under the current criteria.
"I think it's preposterous," Tsay said. "Samahang Pilipino was sponsored just a few years back and we fall into the same category (of student advocacy) that they do."
"Moreover, I think we address and encompass even more issues because the women who make up our organization have been oppressed because of color, class, disability and sexual orientation ... as well as because of their sex," Tsay added.
The council may have held off sponsoring the student group until implications of a Supreme Court case can be grasped, according to Chang.
In the case Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, the university was sued because it had refused to authorize payment for a student-run paper on the basis that the paper promoted a particular belief.
The Supreme Court ruled last June that the university must provide a financial subsidy because of issues involving the Speech and Establishment clause of the First Amendment.
The undergraduate council will be defining the guidelines as it relates to the court's ruling during the summer, ahead of the September deadline set by the administration.
"According to the current guidelines, (the group) should be sponsored," said John Du, the undergraduate external vice president. "But the only thing now is the confusion of what sort of guidelines would be fair to students in light of the ... changes from Rosenberger."
But members of the collective still believed the interpretation will hinder the group's attempt to gain sponsorship in the future.
"All the bylines, all the opinions are an impenetrable maze," co-chair Janet Guggemos said. "Interpreting these rules seems like were being put off indefinitely."
Furthermore, the council's decision raised concerns among council members about whether other groups will pursue sponsorship if the collective had been officially recognized.
"I was told that they thought it would open the floodgates for a lot of other groups to apply for student advocacy sponsorship," Tsay said.
But both the undergraduate council and the Womynist Collective called to attention issues of funding and facility usage.
"That was a very serious concern because USAC has limited resources in terms of funding and facilities," Du said. "If you don't act respectful in setting these guidelines, according to Rosenberger, organizations from 'Beer Drinkers of UCLA' to the Womynist Collective, which is a very legitimate organization, (could) be a student organization."
Regardless of funding or facilities, members of the collective reiterated that all they want is official recognition from the council.
"It's not just about money and facility usage," Tsay said. "It's the fact that they acknowledge that women are also an underrepresented group."
Meanwhile, members of the Womynist Collective are considering going to the judicial board to discuss the legality of the council's decision.