The Flip Side, UW-Eau Claire’s alternative newspaper, took on a different approach than originally intended on Oct. 30, 2003, Flip Side Editor in Chief Brian Vander Kamp said.

His idea was to make The Flip Side similar to the satire publication, The Onion, but it turned out to be an outlet for students to voice opinions, he said.

“We saw the purpose of (The Flip Side) was to get people thinking about (world issues),” Vander Kamp said. “It would give people a place where they could put their voice into the public realm in a very unrestricted format.”

A little more than a year later, however, the future of The Flip Side may take a different direction, after the Student Senate Finance Commission denied it funding for the 2005-2006 academic year.

But The Progressive Student Association plans to help The Flip Side, one of its affiliates, by protesting this move at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Schofield Auditorium during a Free Speech Rally.

“The school didn’t feel like it should fund (The Flip Side) because it was too left-leaning,” said Flip Side Co-Founder, PSA President and Finance Commission member Andrew Werthmann. “This situation is that the school is able to fund The Flip Side legally, and we want to make that case.”

Also slated for the rally is a protest dubbed “Ban the Ban,” which is in opposition to the proposed service learning ban against allowing religious proselytization to meet the 30-hour requirement.

Norman Hubbard, the national representative of the local chapter of Navigators, said he opposes the ban and has made many efforts to express this opinion to the public, ranging from appearances on radio talk shows to creating his own Web site.

“I want the students to be informed about the policies that the university is considering,” he said.

Student Senate passed a resolution Oct. 25 in support of the ban.

University Senate will vote on the ban at its 3 p.m. meeting Tuesday in the Tamarack Room in Davies Center.

Bob Nowlan, English Associate professor, Flip Side adviser and PSA member, said he was not involved in the PSA sponsorship of the event and thinks it hurts the organization temporarily to be sponsoring a rally that involves two separate issues.

He also added he supports the service learning ban.

“I myself would much prefer the two issues be dealt with separately,” he said.

Werthmann and Navigators member Chris Nielson are the two students who helped set up the rally.

While Navigators members are assisting with the cause, Werthmann said the organization is not directly involved – only some of its members are. He added that PSA doesn’t endorse any of the issues.

“We do want to make a forum for everyone to hear what’s going on,” he said.

In regard to The Flip Side, Finance Commission Director Matt Wisnefske said there were several reasons for withholding its funding request. In order for The Flip Side to receive funding, he said, it would have to be an organized activity, pass its constitution through System Legal and not have an ideology.

He added there were some concerns over its material being biased, which also played a role in the denial of its $5,700 fund request.

“If Flip Side could have proven that they were worth funding, they could have been funded. We have the money,” Wisnefske said. “It’s not the problem of money. It’s the problem of, ‘Do we want to set the precedent of giving Flip Side money when they haven’t proven they deserve it?’ ”

While The Flip Side is a recognized organization, he said, for it to be an organized activity, it would have to be approved through System Legal to be ideologically neutral, to have an academic home in a department and to be trustworthy with spending and budgeting its money.

Vander Kamp said The Flip Side received funding from PSA through the Omidyar Foundation – an organization funded by the eBay founders.

If it cannot receive any money through its appeal sent to the Finance Commission, Vander Kamp said it would resort to fund-raising and writing grant proposals to other organizations.

“I certainly hope (the rally) will help us,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure people understand our point of view.”