No ruling was given Saturday at an Associated Students of Madison Student Judiciary hearing involving a dispute between the Roman Catholic Foundation-UW-Madison and ASM’s Student Services Finance Committee.

RCF-UW argued the original criteria used to deny their request are confusing, subjective and allows for value judgments.

RCF-UW was denied funding by SSFC for the third time in the 2008-’10 academic years Feb. 25, when SSFC ruled that the religious student organization failed to fulfill eligibility “Criteria C.” These criteria require groups to provide identifiable educational services to the UW-Madison campus, and the services must offer “significant components beyond event programming and leadership development opportunities.”

RCF-UW student representative Craig Griffie argued to the Student Judiciary that the dual pronged criterion is poorly defined, unjust and subjective.

“You can look through all the literature they provide, and there is no definition for what these things are. The committee members are able to make an unfair value judgment on how to interpret the bylaw,” Griffie said.

“There have been committee members who have voted no for us in the past who have switched over and voted yes. If the criteria were to be a good standard of judgment and if there was an objective basis, there should be no switching of votes.”

Associate Justice Trenell Darby said members should be allowed to change their minds because the overruling bylaw was changed.

Justice Leah Moe also said the voting records of members on SSFC were not relevant.

“Dictating that individual members do ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ doesn’t have anything to do with this complaint right now,” Moe said.

SSFC representative Bonnie Smith argued that RCF-UW confuses the terms “subjectivity” and “value judgment” with discretion and individual perspective, which she argues are impossible to eliminate.

Griffie said the standard of measurement is unclear and should be written on paper, not in the minds of the committee members.

“Does [the discretion] lie in the minds of the committee members or does it lie in the bylaws?” Griffie asked. “The way it is written right now, the members have to define these criteria for themselves.”

At the Feb. 21 eligibility hearing, RCF described their educational service as providing access to mini-courses, religious retreats and alternative break and volunteer opportunities, in addition to opportunities to learn through and about prayer, worship and proselytizing.

Vice Chief Justice Shaun Hernandez presided over the hearing and said he expected the Student Judiciary to release a decision by Thursday or Friday. —Charles Brace contributed to this report