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University Student Court (USC) Chief Justice Stan Rubins resigned Feb. 24 amidst an attempt by the Student Association senate to recall him over concerns about the USC budget, leaving the segregated fee funding appeal of the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG) in limbo as the group petitions the chancellor to restore over $60,000 in funding for 2006-07.

After repeated attempts to appeal a veto of their segregated fee funding for 2006-07, WISPIRG are still waiting to hear from the chancellor's Allocable Fee Review Commission said Ryan Neibauer, a plaintiff on behalf of WISPIRG.

WISPIRG, a student run, non-partisan and non-profit organization that lobbies for student and community issues, has three chapters in Wisconsin, one each at UW-Milwaukee, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Madison.

According to the SA bylaws, Rubins was the head of the Senate Finance Committee Appeals Committee, an SA committee and the final stop for WISPIRG in their effort to have SA overturn the funding veto by SA President Russ Rueden. With Rubins gone, the court does not have enough justices to legally function.

WISPIRG is appealing their veto, contending, among other things, that SA violated the constitution by allowing a line item veto by the President and allowing viewpoint neutrality violations, Neibauer said. Frank Gaura, a former SA parliamentarian charged with enforcing procedure during senate meetings, also submitted a letter to the court alleging that the senate did not act according to the rules when they denied overturning the original veto.

The appeals committee was scheduled to convene on the issue Feb. 24 at 8am, but when WISPIRG showed up, the committee claimed that they couldn't convene because they didn't have the required amount of acting officials and one of the primary members-Rubins-was under impeachment, Neibauer said.

WISPIRG wasn't the only organization whose funding had been vetoed, but their funding was the only one that was not restored by the SA senate. Several prominent community members, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, have voiced their opposition to the cuts.

"It's been the same organization for the past 10 years since we started," Neibauer said. "Why now is it being decided by one person that we're not a critical service anymore. The issue shouldn't have gotten to the chancellor. Why, after the senate and the SFC decided to approve WISPIRG, were we then vetoed by Rueden? If we don't get approved, that's it: we're done."

With the majority of WISPIRG's time being spent on their funding appeal, they have had little time to work their usual campaigns. Ultimately, the students are the ones hurt by this said Kayla Hedtke, Save Our Lakes Campaign Coordinator for UWM WISPIRG.

Within 10 years, 90-100 percent of our lakes will be built on, Hedtke said.

The Save Our Lakes Campaign is a state-wide WISPIRG effort to lobby the state legislature in the hopes of influencing DNR regulations. One goal of the Save Our lakes campaign is to increase the building distance from 35ft to 50ft on some of Wisconsin's shores in an effort to control run-off and other problems pollution problems, said Hedtke.

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