A portion of all mandatory student fees support campus clubs that would not be able to continue on their own.

Currently, a portion of Iowa State student fees goes to supporting campus clubs and organizations, including religious and political groups. The Government of the Student Body controls the distribution of student fees.

However, several ISU administrators and GSB are looking into changing to a “check-off” system in which students could decline contribution to certain clubs.

“I don’t anticipate that we will be making any major changes, but I think we need to begin to think about it,” said Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance. “We need to at least begin to think about these issues as they relate to Iowa State.”

Some recent court cases have brought the distribution of student fees into focus.

In one case, Rosenberger vs. Rector, the University of Virginia had a rule prohibiting the use of student fees to fund religious organizations. The university was taken to court by a campus religious publication, and the court ruled the university could not interfere with the free speech of an organization by refusing funding.

However, in the more recent Wisconsin Southworth vs. Grebe case, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals followed an earlier Supreme Court precedent. The circuit court ruled that forcing students to pay for campus groups they do not support through allocation of student fees is a violation of their First Amendment rights.

Paul Tanaka, director of University Legal Services, said the case is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and because ISU is not within the jurisdiction of the Seventh Circuit, the university is not yet legally bound to abide by the ruling.

“[These rulings] could have some implications in the way we deal with student fees,” Madden said. “This is an appropriate time for the students and the university to evaluate the situation.”

However, not everyone supports inquiries into the check-off system. The alternative newspaper The Drummer opposes any exploration into the system.

“There is no reason, in our opinion, to even discuss this issue,” said David Cmelik, graduate student in business and reporter for The Drummer. “The [current] system has been in place to provide people the ability to experience what they normally would not.”

Cmelik said a check-off system would restrain students’ freedom.

“If the university decides to support a check off of any kind, it will absolve itself from the responsibly to maintain an environment of freedom of debate,” Cmelik said. “We think that the university is motivated [to start a check-off system] by risk management and liability — not student rights.”

GSB President Bryan Burkhardt said GSB is still in the primary stages of investigating the subject. He said GSB may choose to comply with the verdict now to avoid future legal problems.

Madden said whether ISU changes its policy will depend on if the Southworth decision is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We haven’t made any decisions to change anything at this point in time. We need to begin to be aware of them and think about our options if the situation begins to change any,” Madden said.

Tanaka said the university is only considering the possibility of changing the system in order to be fair to all students.

“Really the issue is: ‘What is the appropriate stance on the distribution of student fees?'” Tanaka said.

Setbacks of a check-off system could include the cost and complexity of having students complete check-off forms.

“It gets to be very complex if you start to let all 25,000 students begin to check off,” Madden said.

The system also may hurt groups that are not as popular with the majority of the students.

“We want to continue to offer a wide variety of groups at Iowa State,” Madden said. “There are some areas that would not get enough [support] to continue.”

“Before any action is taken we are definitely going to seek out student input,” Burkhardt said. “We need to make sure we do it as fairly as possible.”